


What Grows In Deception

by Soulfulbard



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: After Tokyo, F/M, Gen, Love Doctor Cy, Mind Swap, Raven is OP, Slow Burn, Star is Intelligent, friends first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 04:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 39
Words: 73,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9418838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulfulbard/pseuds/Soulfulbard
Summary: A villain switches bodies with Raven to infiltrate the Titans. Beast Boy thinks he's falling for her, but how can he face the real Raven when she returns? And just what is this new foe's plan?





	1. Lady Aionor

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fan work created at no profit and for entertainment purposes only. The author acknowledges that Teen Titans and related characters are property of Warner Entertainment.

Robin hated this place, wished that someone would finally buy the decaying hulk of a building and tear it all down. If they left not a single brick atop another, he'd still say it wasn't demolished thoroughly enough.

He didn't even know for certain what it was originally meant to be. It was a huge, cavernous complex, filled with pistons and gearwheels with no discernible purpose. But whatever it was meant to be, what it was to him was a monument to some of the worst moments in his life and Titans history.

Here, he had been made the unwilling apprentice of Slade, a murderous psychopath whose personality, at its core, was uncomfortably close to his own. Here, he had nearly killed himself while under the effects of a hallucinogen, and here, Slade had returned as an undead monster to threaten his friend and teammate.

Nothing good had ever happened to the Titans when they came here. And now he had even more to lose.

The disturbing thought made him glance to his left. It was entirely irrational, but he had to make sure Starfire was still there, that the lovely Tammaranian still hovered at his side. The last thing he wanted was for this place of pain and sorrow to take her. Only a few short months had passed since Tokyo, and he still found himself concerned to the point of distraction for her safety in battle.

He reassured himself by taking his staff from the clip on his belt and extending it. Filling his hands with some sort of weaponry was as much a nervous tic as it was a way of preparing for battle. In that way, it wasn't unlike Stare gathering starbolts in her palms, or Raven flaring her soul-self in the form of black flames over her fists, or Cyborg reconfiguring his arm into his sonic cannon.

They were all doing so now. None of them was comfortable being back in the building, especially not when they were there to investigate who had reconnected the power to the place, as evidenced by the overhead lights shining down on them.

All except Beast Boy. Robin knew there was little he could actually do to visibly ready his powers, but it seemed to him that the youngest member of the team was observing the fallen cogs and pistons with curiosity instead of dread. There was no rule that the green hero had to hate it as much as the others, but it grated slightly on his leader's already frayed nerves.

However, at Starfire's urging, he was trying his hand at being more tolerant of the fact that not everyone had spent their lives being trained in the fine art of paranoia and seriousness. So he chose not to reprimand or chide Beast Boy an instead spoke to the entire team.

“Alright, Titans; we don't know very much about the situation, so be on your guard and expect anything.” He cast a glance at Star, “And stay close. Until we know what we're up against, I don't want us even getting out of sight of the others.”

The lights immediately went out.

“You just had to tempt Murphy's Law, didn't ya, Rob?” Cyborg forced humor in order to keep the tension from his voice. His shoulder mounted light popped up, illuminating the area immediately around them. His robust voice all but drowned out Beast Boy's gasp.

“Not the time, Cyborg.” Robin grit his teeth and brought his staff on guard.

“Guys?” Beast Boy asked, voice wavering.

“Man, chill. I know this ain't a laughing matter, but it's better than freaking out.”

“Guys.”

“I am not freaking out.” Robin said brusquely.

“Please, friends, this is not the time for fighting.” Starfire tried to mediate.

“Guys!” Beast Boy gesticulated wildly to get their attention.

“What?” Cyborg and Robin snarled simultaneously, their ire for each other pouring over in the direction of the overly loud changeling.

If he was affected by it, Beast Boy didn't show it. He was too concerned with the current problem, which he demonstrated by gesturing to the empty space behind him where Raven had been bringing up the rear. “Where's Raven?”

Starfire gasped in horror as the other two Titans swiftly went back on their guard.

“Raven?” Robin shouted into the darkness. No answer.

“Star, light us up.” Cyborg suggested. Starfire complied, raising one arm and igniting an intense starbolt in her palm. Her flickering green light illuminated out to thirty feet in all direction. Oh, how they all wished it hadn't.

They were surrounded. Oddly shaped things lurked behind and atop the broken and collapsed machinery. The uniform shape seemed to rise up from the ground on a tapering stalk with triangular heads attached to a bulge in the stalk by a spindly neck. Two mantis-like scythes also extended from the bulbs, and were held akimbo.

Nothing good ever happened in this place.

“Titans, Go!” Robin bellowed. “Find Raven, then regroup here.” Like any good leader, he was first into the fray, swinging his staff out one handed while he dropped a magnesium flare with another. Brilliant, white light filled the room, throwing the Titan's shadows across their foes. And hopefully blinding them at least for a moment.

The thing in front of him rose up to meet his first strike. It was half again his height and some blasphemous amalgamation of insect and snake. The 'stalk' was now revealed to be a muscular tail, covered in leathery, gray hide while the head was dominated by a sharp beak, sweeping back into a pair of ridges that resembled horns. No eyes were evident there and both it and the scythe-like blades it caught his staff with were made of silvery chitin with a sheen over them like an oil slick.

It repelled his first swing, but wasn't fast enough to block a straight jab into the bulge Robin hoped was its center. It overbalanced and fell backward, only to be replaced by two more, whose blows he deflected by whirling his staff in a quick circle.

Behind him, the other remaining Titans also waded into battle.

Starfire rose into the air, turning a slow circle so she could scan the ground for signs of Raven. At the same time, she flung starbolts into the strange monsters, keeping them from getting behind her friends or crowding them too much. It was a standard tactic on her planet and it always surprised her that her boyfriend never considered it. Possibly because she did so without being asked or calling attention to it.

Cyborg worked methodically, targeting and blasting the monsters with his sonic cannon. Normally in situations like this, he'd let loose and blow through them enmasse, but Raven was missing and could be behind some of that machinery, so he was forced to opt for the more inefficient method to avoid harming her accidentally.

Beast Boy was getting frustrated. It would be cake to find Raven if he just had time to shift into a bloodhound. He already knew all his friends scents, plus Titans East and most of the honorary Titans, even. But the bizarre monsters seemed to be swarming him worst of all.

He punched three away from him in gorilla form, only to find five more leaping for him. Shifting into an ankylosaur, he smashed three high into the air with his club tail and caught the other two's blades on his hard carapace. The next moment, he became a Sasquatch, grabbing one of them by the tail and swinging it hard into the other.

No sooner was he done with that, then he turned to see three more leaping down from a ruined catwalk. He raised his fist to commence with pummeling them when a familiar voice made his ears perk up.

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.” A piston the size of an upended eighteen-wheeler and crawling with black energy thundered down from above, smashing the three creatures beneath it. Raven floated down behind it, seeming to admire her handiwork.

Beast Boy took the risk of reverting to his default form so he could talk. “Rae! You didn't get kidnapped and eaten!”

“No.” She droned in her customary monotone. “But I have been annoyed. More than even you're capable of.” A gesture caused a man sized gear to upright itself and go rolling into part of a horde attacking Cyborg. Her eyes narrowed at the monsters noticed her for the first time. “Now. Who's next?”

The creatures froze for a split second, then vanished in a burst of crackling static, one by one. The lights flickered back on.

Suddenly, the building was plunged into uneasy quiet.

Cyborg reconfigured his cannon back into an arm and scratched his head. “What was all that about?”

“Yeah,” Beast Boy agreed, “Raven's been way scarier than that. What kinda scaredy-cat monsters were those?” He ignored the annoyed glare Raven shot him.

“But... we are victorious, yes?”

“I'm not so sure of that, Star.” Robin shook his head. “Those things were here for a reason, and left on their own accord. We need to find out why. Split up and search for any clue to what they were up to here, but keep radio contact at all times.”

Reluctantly, the Titans did as ordered, taking a section of the building and beginning their search. All but Raven.

She made sure the others were gone and slipped behind an unrecognizably destroyed piece of machinery. Hidden in its cowling was a small hand mirror, which she picked up and spoke a magic word into. The silvery surface gave way to a scene inside a cavern somewhere outside Jump City. Front and center in the image was the Puppet King.

“You rang, Mistress Aionor?” He asked in his sniveling voice. He wanted to be a ruler, but the young woman who now gave him orders thought he never had the bearing or the voice to rule in the first place.

“Did you receive her?”

“Yes, Mistress.” He drawled, reminding her of a badly portrayed Igor. “The new controller you created for me worked perfectly. She is now in your body as you are in hers.”

“Excellent. Did you have any trouble containing her?”

“You are mighty, Mistress, but the sleeping potion you gave us is working like a charm.”

She smiled, more of a smile than the real Raven usually was wont to even in the best of times. “You've done well, Puppet King. It shouldn't take me long to locate the book and return. Continue to serve me well and maybe I'll make you into a real boy when this is all over.” She sneered at the cruel joke before cutting the connection.

Carefully, Aionor hid the mirror again and headed out to pretend to look for signs of her own plan.


	2. Infiltration

It was almost two in the morning when at last the group of weary Titans finally trudged into the common room from the garage elevator.

Robin had insisted on a full on grid pattern search when the initial search failed and between the two, it took two hours of mind-numbing drudgery in the oppressively creepy derelict building. All that and they had absolutely nothing to show for it.

“Dude, I think I'm too tired to even go to sleep.” Beast Boy moaned as he stumbled in ahead of the others.

Starfire was close behind, wandering over to the kitchen counter to lean on it. “Agreed. Unconsciousness will be most welcome this night.”

Looking just as tired, Robin headed for the kitchen and put a pot of coffee on. “Sorry guys, but you'll need to stay up a little bit longer. I want everyone to go down to the hanger and take a decontamination shower. And Cyborg, I need you to get some blood work started.”

Beast Boy flopped down on a stool next to where Star was leaning and let his head hit the counter. “You what?! Someone please tell me that I didn't hear what I think I just heard.”

“I know I better not have.” Cyborg said. He flipped open a panel on his arm and showed it to Robin; it was his charge meter, reading five percent. “You see this Bird Boy? When the tens place is at zero and the ones place is at five, that means bedtime for Cyborg, got it? Nobody wants me pokin' em with no needles while I'm bone tired and malfunctioning.”

Starfire was forced to agree. “I would like to avoid the needles entirely if at all possible.”

Robin huffed in disbelief. “Guys, I can't believe I'm hearing this! Don't your remember the last time we got called somewhere and it turned out to be a red herring? Slade infected you all with nanobots that nearly killed you.”

And there it was. Aionor fought hard not to smile. She'd picked the site for their little encounter precisely for that reason: it'd give Robin Slade on the brain. All of his inquiries and considerable investigative skills would go toward his obsession with his nemesis and the usual voice of reason that might possibly suggest a magical origin for the zaigest swarmlings she employed against the team was safely out of the picture.

“Man, we didn't get shot with anything.” Cyborg countered. “We just fought those lizard-bugs and they didn't so much as break skin.”

Beast Boy and Starfire looked over to see how Robin would respond, hitting him with a double dose of pleading eyes, hoping to avoid the long trek down to the hanger and the painful high pressure spray from Cyborg's patented 'anti-Plasmus-gunk' system.

As happened far too often for Robin's taste, the vote was three to one with one abstaining. Batman would be ashamed.

“Fine.” He huffed. “But we're all getting tested tomorrow first thing. And at least take a regular hot shower before turning in, just in case we got dusted with something.”

“What if the dust stuff is actually designed to combine with water into like a super-acid and it melts us into puddles of goo?” Beast Boy suddenly asked.

Just as suddenly, Aionor was aware of four sets of eyes glancing at her. It took her a second to realize that they were waiting for Raven's typical put down in response to him saying something stupid. She struggled to come up with something. And really, it was just in keeping with Robin's paranoid logic, so it wasn't as stupid in context as it seemed...

Luckily for her, she was saved by Robin, who gave her a surprised look. “Okay, if Raven is too tired to retort, I guess we really are all running on empty. Just do the shower thing so I can have a tiny bit of peace of mind tonight?”

Cyborg chuckled and nudged Aionor with his elbow. “Way ta go Rae.” He let out a huge yawn. “Well, ya heard the man: shower then sleep. I for one am gonna obey our fearless leader. Night ya'll!”

The other Titans responded with a mixed chorus of 'good nights'. Robin still called him Cyborg, but since Tokyo, a number of things had changed, not just with Starfire and Robin's relationship, but among the team in general. Robin's Batman-inspired rule against telling anyone their secret identities had gone out the window, so in the privacy of the tower, Star called him Victor, and Beast Boy called him Vic. How well the new policy stuck varied from person to person.

Once he sauntered out of the room and toward the dorm levels, Robin looked to the others. “You guys can go on. I'm going to do a few quick searches; try to see if those creatures have showed up before.”

Everyone present, including the spy in their midst knew that translated from Robin-ese as 'I am going to stay up all night looking for Slade sightings'.

“Oh.” Star said, trying to sound casual. “Perhaps I shall go and keep you company.” She intended to try and curb his latest descent into overworking himself into a frenzy, but tired as she was, both she and Robin both knew she'd just end up falling asleep, possibly leaning on his shoulder. Neither really had a problem with that.

“Sure, Star.” Robin said, pouring an extra cup of coffee for her before offering his arm to her like a proper courtly escort.

Starfire beamed and used that arm to drag him forcefully to her side. Only his ninja training kept the coffee from hitting the floor as she flew them out through the automatic doors and down to the evidence room.

That left Beast Boy and 'Raven' alone in the common room.

Aionor fidgeted a little. Playing Raven thus far had been easy: stay back from the group and be quiet. She thanked several gods of several worlds that Starfire wasn't the one with magical knowledge and senses. But now, she was left in a one-on-one situation where she might actually have to act for once. Weeks of observation and practice suddenly felt like not enough.

Until she heard snoring and looked over to find Beast Boy slumped over the counter with a small puddle of drool forming under his face.

She sighed. Not that she was complaining, but it all felt so anti-climactic. No tense moments where her knowledge of the other Titans was called into question, no accidental slips and ad-libbed recoveries. The Titans just literally wandered off and/or fell asleep, leaving her alone in the tower to do as she pleased.

A smirk came to her lips. And why not? As far as they knew, she was Raven. That was a spell well spent, even if she'd been forced to sift through seventeen tons of Plasmus's sludge from three different battles with the Titans in order to find hairs torn from Raven's head after she was covered in the stuff.

The hair was the lynchpin of the entire plan, really. With it, she'd been able to use the Puppet King's new controller through a scrying mirror instead of confronting the half-demon directly. The sleeping potion she downed just before doing so would give her forty-eight hours at least before Raven awakened and things could get hairy.

Not that she needed all that time. Months of planning and preparation was focused on what she expected to be a few hours work. Get in, find the book, get out. Simple.

Now brimming with confidence, she stepped out of the common room through the automatic doors... and froze.

Her source had been incredibly detailed about the lives of the titans; from favorite foods, to the way each fought, to even hints at how they behaved in private. She knew them as a whole better than they knew themselves.

But standing that the top of the 'T' shaped hallway, she became aware of an important detail he'd missed: namely the actual layout of the tower. She groaned in frustration and rested her face briefly in her palm. “He knows every fight they've been in, every stupid joke the changeling has ever told, every dish the Tammaranian has prepared... and yet he couldn't tell me thing one about the floor plan?” She muttered in Raven's monotone. “Super.”

Figuring the other Titans were asleep anyway, and that in any event, it was fittingly creepy for Raven to haunt about the tower anyway, Aionor set out down the first halls she saw, hoping to luck out. After only two wrong hallways, she found herself standing in front of a sliding mechanical door with a brass nameplate bearing the name 'Raven' screwed to its face.

So far so good. Now all she had to do was get in, get the book, and get out with two days to try and crack its secrets with both Raven's demonic powers at her disposal to help. She used Raven's soul-self to push the door open. A rectangle of light fell into the dreary, slightly macabre chamber that was Raven's domain. Another gesture turned on the lights.

That was a lot of books, she thought, temporarily daunted. But Raven was clearly an avid reader and Aionor had expected this. The book she was after wasn't a mere novel, it was a potent book of magic. And the last place it had been seen...

Aionor spied Raven's hope chest next to her bed and moved swiftly over to it. The wards placed around it were no issue at all; they recognized their mistress, or rather her body. Feeling giddy with her triumph, she threw the lid open.

The first objects in sight didn't matter all that much to her; a white cloak in the same style as the blue one currently around her shoulders, a soft toy in the shape of a chicken, a puppet in Raven's likeness. The last one made Aionor smirk. If Raven ever got back to her room after this, that was probably going into the incinerator.

Also atop the cloak was the mirror. Aionor gave this a wide berth. There was no telling what would happen if it were activated while someone else inhabited Raven's body. Using the cloak, she gently moved it to the side. In doing so, she felt something book shaped beneath the white fabric.

Victory!

She hastily pushed the cloak out of the way and picked up...

“The Legend of Brushogun? What.” She glared at the elderly book as if it had set out to insult her. Why even bother keeping this? Brushogun was dead, and not exactly a villain in any event. Why keep a book on defeating a villain that was already gone?”

And Slade was how dead again? She scolded herself. Of course a superhero would never take something as simple as dissolving in her leader's arms as a sign of permanent death. Still, the book was worthless to Aionor. She tossed it carelessly aside and reached in again. There was another book there.

Now. Victory.

Again, she pulled the book from the chest and gazed upon the cover.

And again, she was met with disappointment. The Book of Azar. Less useless than the Brushogun book, but still not what she was after. She would, however, take it with her on the way out.

But there were no other books in the chest. Which meant... Her eyes traveled to the two massive bookcases in the room. They were deeper than they looked; recessed into the wall to allow Raven to store her mind-cripplingly huge library to be stored in double rows.

A needle in a stack of needles.

Years of living with Beast Boy made Raven's body especially apt at the expression and the phrase that crossed her mind in that moment.

“You have got to be kidding me.”


	3. Complications and the New Plan

“Ew.” Beast Boy groaned in disgust. The memory of whatever dreams he'd been lost in burst and dissolved like a soap bubble as he sat bolt upright on the bar stool. Waking up in a puddle of your own drool was probably the worst way to start the day.

With heavy lidded eyes, he slid off the stool and tottered over to the paper towels situated by the sink. It wasn't the first time it happened, almost certainly wouldn't be the last. At least this time no one had seen him. That sort of thing never got less embarrassing, especially when he ended up snoring and drooling on someone.

While he was busy toweling himself and the counter off, he got a look at the windows. It was still dark out, Jump City's lights acting as a second starscape across the bay. He hadn't been asleep for long.

Bits and pieces of his dream came back. Bits and pieces of her came back to the fore. Terra. His first love. The first time she left it hurt. The betrayal tore his heart out. Her death was even worse.

And her resurrection?

It was a lot of things to him. He was glad she was back, depressed that she'd forgotten him, disturbed by the fact that he couldn't tell if the amnesia was real of fake, and conflicted as to which one he wanted it to be. It had been eight months since that day, the last day he'd spoken to her. On many levels, he was over her, and yet there was still the occasional dream.

But it wasn't Terra's memory that made his stomach twist. It was a voice that came with it; whether he was sleeping or waking.

Perhaps she wanted to keep you as a pet.

Robin told him Slade did that sort of thing; said untrue things, or things that cut to the core to make his enemies angry or upset. It took them off balance and made them easier to defeat. He said that the newest Robin, their Robin's replacement's replacement at Batman's side, used the same tactic against villains.

If what Robin III said and did to villains was like what Slade had done to him with his words, Beast Boy never wanted to meet the kid. He wanted to punch him right in the nose. Even the infamous Joker didn't deserve such treatment as far as he was concerned.

Oh, he knew Terra didn't think of him that way. Maybe she hadn't liked him the way he did her—it was hard to tell in hindsight, considering just how messed up she turned out to be—but she at least saw him as a person. But it pressed buttons all the same; calling into question his role as a hero.

In the Doom Patrol, he'd been the baby of the team. They treated him well enough (with allowances for Mento's attitude), but it was clear that he was just one step up from just being a tagalong, especially in the years before they first encountered dinosaurs and in the process expanded his internal menagerie greatly.

With the Titans, he was still the youngest, but by no means the baby. No one tried to parent him or treat him like a kid. And yet... he didn't know what he was good for with them. Sure, he had powers, but so did everyone else. And the others also did more than just use their powers:

Cyborg was more than just his sonic cannon and strength; he was their resident tech expert and medic. Starfire was more than air support and the strongest; she was a sort of team mom, don't more with her mundane empathy than Raven did with the empathy that was part of her powers. Robin didn't even have powers, just tech from Batman and Cyborg, but he brought leadership and tactics to the table and that was worth more to a team than even having Superman on board. Even Raven, who, given the breadth of her magic, shouldn't even need more to prove her worth was also the go-to Titan for research that wasn't tech or medicine based, and the only one among them that knew anything about magic.

Robin made them a team. Starfire made them a family. Cyborg and Raven made the whole thing work.

And Beast Boy...

Well he was a Swiss army knife in terms of powers. He'd never discount that. Tracker, spy, scout, distraction; he had an animal for everything. He watched Animal Planet religiously to gain more. But if the whole team was stripped of their powers today, he'd be the only one that was useless.

It was a grim fact he didn't think about too often. He knew his friends would never abandon him over it, but it tore him up inside knowing he didn't contribute as much to the team as the others did. Just another reason he hated Slade; reminding him of that.

There was going to be no going back to sleep tonight. He knew ghosts and reminders would be waiting for him in his dreams.

Grumbling a few choice expletives, he made his way over to the couch and flopped down. It was only when he was fully reclined that he realized the remote was on top of the Gamestation—all the way over by the TV.

Why did people keep doing that? It defeated the entire purpose of a remote! He glared at the device and for some reason, completely failed to cause it to float over to him. A groan turned into a whine. Running on only two hours sleep after a late night, he didn't have the energy to stand up and get it.

He was contemplating morphing into a giraffe to reach when the common room doors opened.

Based purely on the hour, he guessed it was Cyborg, up for a late night snack. A whiff of lilac disabused him of that notion. Some time shortly after the Puppet King incident, Star had insisted on outfitting Raven with some 'female essentials', which apparently included lilac bath oil. Raven must have liked it, since the first bottle had to be long gone three years later and yet lilac had become effectively incorporated into the scent he generally identified as 'Raven'.

Aionor was not having the best night. She'd wasted three hours scouring Raven's shelves and the book she sought wasn't one of the dozens, possibly hundreds stored there. The plan had seemed so simple and yet things weren't turning out the way she'd planned and it grated on her nerves.

So it was back down to Ops. She knew there was a computer there and with any luck, there was a floor plan on it that would give her some indication as to where else in the tower a highly dangerous magical book might be stored. Her best guess was the evidence room, but she would still need a floor plan for that.

The doors opened into the common room and she took note of the Beast Boy-free counter and assumed he'd gone to bed.

Good. The changeling was the member of the team she knew least about. She knew the flaws and weak points in Cyborg's design, the extent of Starfire's alien strength and toughness, and devised counters to all of Robin's gadgetry. But Beast Boy could become any animal, meaning he had thousands of specialized tools at his disposal and that wasn't even getting into things like his ability to take the forms of dinosaurs and alien fauna.

There was not planning for him. For any animal she thought to counter, there would be thousands she didn't. And he never seemed to reach his limit. Aionor didn't even know to what extent he kept his powers gave him animal senses in human form. Hearing and scent seemed a given, but did he possess any of the 'sixth senses' other animals seemed to? If he could sense her mood like a house cat, or detected malevolent intent like a dog, he could end her charade in an instant.

It was best to avoid him if at all possible.

She slid into the seat in front of the Ops console and turned it on.

“Hey, Rae.”

She bit back a scream at the voice. Raven didn't scream, so she couldn't either. Raven's powers lashed out at the spike in emotion, blasting the throw pillow next to Beast Boy into a cloud of polyester stuffing. Whirling in her seat, she found him sitting up on the couch; the falling fluff looking like snow all around him.

Rubbing the back of his head, he let out a self conscious chuckle. “Right. No surprising you. I don't think I'll ever learn.”

He recalled one particularly bad instance a few years earlier where he'd almost plowed into Raven running around a corner in the hall. She hadn't meant to, but in her surprise, her powers got loose and chucked him through the window.

Luckily it was open, and they were high enough up that turning into a bird was no problem. But a camera crew had been filming out on the bay and caught the aftermath of him rocketing out the window with a horrified looking Raven watching out the window and from then on, half his fan mail consisted of fan-girls promising to protect him from that 'evil' Raven who 'always' threw him out the window.

It seemed like everyone thought they hated each other, the other Titans included. They didn't seem to get that their bickering was equivalent to play fighting... most of the time at least. But when it came right down to it, they more than any of the others (save Star and Robin for obvious reasons) watched out for one another. In his mind at least, they were best friends.

Aionor couldn't read his mind, but Raven's empathy was drowning her in the warmth of his affection and embarrassment at having set off her powers. There was also residual doubt lurking beneath it all. None of which she'd been expecting of the goofy changeling when he found himself alone with the girl who, by all reports, hurled him bodily through plate glass weekly.

Interesting. Maybe the rumors were true after all. It'd certainly be a powerful arrow in her quiver if it panned out. But not now; she had work to do, and if the rumors were wrong, trying to play that card could bring the whole thing crashing down.

Instead, she tried to stay in character by rolling her eyes and droning “Right.”, before turning back to the console.

Beast Boy dusted fluff out of his hair and held in a laugh. Typical Raven. At least now he had someone to talk to, and that alone made him feel more energized than before. He flopped back down on the couch, this time on his belly, head facing where Raven sat at the computer.

“So, couldn't sleep? Decided to come out here and play some solitaire?”

Aionor heaved a sigh. It was becoming quite clear that he wasn’t going to leave her alone. After all, he wouldn't leave the real Raven alone either. “If you must know, I was researching those creatures we fought earlier. I thought I recognized them, but they're not in any of my books. So I thought I'd check the Titans' database.” She lied fluidly, her specialty.

“Oh.” He said, not particularly interested in the monsters. Honestly, sometimes monsters attacked. That's something Robin didn't understand that he knew from the Doom Patrol; sometimes there wasn't some plot by the Joker or Two-face. “Well Good luck with that.”

She didn't reply. In a few mouse clicks, she would have her floor plan and she could be gone.

The moment she clicked an icon, however, a data field popped up on screen: LOGIN REQUIRED.

Her eyes narrowed at the machine. Of course it would need a password. And of course, she didn't have one. Because that's just how her entire plan had been going from the moment she downed that sleeping potion and started the switch with Raven.

Behind her, Beast Boy started humming idly.

Unless...

Time to take a risk.


	4. Contact and Again

Aionor made a disgusted noise in the general direction of the computer. “Infernal machine.” She growled. Infernal machine? Did that sound like something Raven would say? It certainly felt like it fit, but if anyone had no business using infernal as an insult, it was Raven.

“Something wrong?” asked Beast Boy. Apparently it was close enough.

“Forgot my password.” Aionor droned, letting some of her own frustration leak into her tone.

He picked himself up off the couch and wandered to her side. “Well that sucks. Trust me, I know for a fact the long lecture you're in for when Vic has to reset it for ya in the morning.”

“I'm not looking forward to it.” She said truthfully. “But what I'm doing now is very important. I can't wait for morning.”

Beast Boy shrugged. “Don't see how you've got any other choice. Vic was seriously tapped when we got in; it'd be a bad idea to interrupt him getting a full charge—again, there's a lecture.”

Unseen by him, Aionor was gritting her teeth. She was trying to get him to make the suggestion. Was he really that dense? “Beast Boy, I cannot stress how important it is that I perform my research as soon as possible.”

He frowned for a second, knowing what he had to do. The sacrifices he endured for his best friend. “Alright, I'll go wake him up and take the bullet for ya, Rae. I'll tell him it's my fault.” He was already turning on his heel to do just like when she turned the chair around to call after him.

“What? No!” The outburst caused a flare of dark energy to rip down a ceiling tile, sending it plummeting perilously close to Beast Boy, who reflexively became a turtle to protect himself.

Once the danger was past, he resumed his normal form and gave her an odd look. Empathy told her that concern and confusion had joined his other emotions. “Are you alright, Rae?”

Aionor wanted to scream. How was this so hard? All the changeling had to do was offer to log her in with his password. That way, if asked later, he'd have to admit it was his idea. It also happened to be the simplest solution to 'Raven's' problem, so how in the world was it the very last thought to come into his head?

She didn't even bother to hide her frustration with him. “Has it even occurred to you that it isn't even possible that me forgetting something is your fault?”

“Yeah, but whenever something weird happens with you, they all assume it's my fault somehow anyway.” He shrugged, perfectly used to that assumption. It was correct a disturbing percentage of the time anyway.

This wasn't working. Suggestion was too subtle for him. “Fine. Whatever. But don't you think it's easier for me, you and Cyborg if you just gave me your password?”

Beast Boy looked aghast. “Rae, are you off your nut? Robin would kill me! He got mad at Star for doing that for me a couple of months ago. Star! If he can get mad at her over that, imagine what he'd do if he found out his least favorite did it?” Admittedly, he was being a bit unfair to Robin, but even a year later, what he did during the Beast situation was a point of bitterness, apologies or no.

His panic as genuine, she could tell, but his fear wasn't anywhere near ironclad. With the proper nudge... Now the risk came into play. The high level of affection she sensed strengthened her confidence that it could work, provided he didn't completely freak out. And if it did work, it would be a useful carrot indeed if she needed his help again.

Standing, she took the handful of steps to cross the intervening space between them and put her hand on his forearm. Raven's violet eyes tried to make contact with his green ones, but he was more than a little distract by her hand. That...didn't happen. Raven didn't touch anyone outside of very specific circumstances. And even then; they had hugged a few times, but that kind of light touch on the arm was something new.

Finally, he looked up and met her eyes.

“Please just do this.” She said, softly but as firmly as she said anything. “It's very important and cannot wait.”

“Is there something about these things you're not telling me?” He asked. The only explanation he could come up with for Raven acting this way was because she was afraid. Very afraid. 

Raven's empathy registered the spike of concern and she went with it, glancing away. “I just need to be sure. Hopefully I'm wrong, and if I am, it's for the best that you don't know what I'm thinking right now.”

Over the years, if there was one thing Beast Boy had learned about Raven, it was this: when she said he didn't want to know, he did not want to know. Curiosity was all well and good, but some things should not be and Raven had a number of them on proverbial speed dial, if not in the family tree. So as much as he refused to give up on getting her out of her shell, that was one line of questioning he was too smart to pursue.

He nodded quickly, fearing that if he didn't she might tell him anyway. “Way ahead of ya. I'll just log you in and then, no offense, get the heck out of here before there are pictures.” They went back over to the console. Along the way, he noticed that her hand stayed on his arm and he started to rethink leaving. She must have been really freaked; was it right for him to leave her along like that?

Of course, this was Raven he was talking about. Indestructible, unflappable Raven; she who faced down the universal embodiment of evil and kicked his can, the girl who faced down a dragon with a book, and the demoness that beat down her own evil heritage every day to do good. As far as he was concerned, she was Batman in a leotard in terms of being a badass.

And yet, what was up with the hand on his arm? 

It was best not to dwell on these things, especially when tired, he concluded. Leaning over the console he keyed in his login: GMLogan, password: mongoose. Not the most secure password; of course Beast Boys' password would be an animal, but there were a lot of animals, and absolutely no one knew what his first animal shape had been. Not even Raven.

Logging in brought up the basic command interface; security protocols required another password, one assigned by Cyborg's encryption keys. If someone was looking to hurt the Titans directly, learning their general password wasn't the way, but Robin viewed any and all security measures, even those just for minor personal privacy as serious business. There was one occasion where he even had it out with Raven for leaving the key to her diary out accidentally.

Aionor had no way of knowing this, but then again, she wasn't interested in breaching tower security or hacking secure files. She just needed a floor plan and their villain database. She slid past him, making sure that the move brought her much closer to him than strictly possible and made as if to sit down.

Then she paused and gave him what she hoped Beast Boy would see as a shy glance. The carrot and the stick. That's how you got things done. The touch on the arm was the carrot, but if she wanted to cement his unthinking aid in the future there needed to be positive reinforcement. And since mere physical contact had worked so well...

She leaned down (for he was still a few inches shorter than she), and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Beast Boy's eyes practically bulged. This wasn't just something that did not happen, it was something that never happened, that, until a fraction of a second ago, he expected would never happen to anyone ever from now until the End of the World. Hell, it hadn't even happened during the actual end of the world.

Aionor fancied that she could actually sense the synapses misfiring in his head. The shock broke over her like a wave, but underneath it, she could distinctly tel that it hadn't been unwelcome. Meanwhile, she fought to keep her face schooled as her stomach heaved.

Even up close, she hadn't noticed, but he was... fuzzy. Like a cat with extremely short, fine hair. Kissing his cheek had been like kissing warm velvet. Green velvet. Alive and distinctly not human, even inside far as she could be considered human. It didn't help that she was distinctly aware that she'd done it while in the body of a gray-skinned half demon who was a flick of a mental stitch from four eyes and tentacles. Nothing about that scenario failed to disgust her.

But there were more important things than satisfying her overwhelming need to find a bathroom or trashcan and emptying herself of whatever Raven had eaten before the mission. So she kept control, managing to only blast a stack of blank CD's sitting by the console with Raven's powers, and say one word in explanation. “Thanks.”

Somewhere in his chaotic haze of 'what the heck is going on?', Beast Boy heard this and blinked. “Um... for what?”

'For helping me gain free reign in the tower to further my plans' didn't seem all that appropriate. Aionor opted for “For being there for me. Not just tonight.”

That made sense to her. From her observations, he had been there for her quite often, which made the reported defenestrations all the more confusing to her. But it seemed reasonable that a clear 'thank you' wasn't entirely out of place, if a long time coming. And it explained why the ice queen had suddenly defrosted.

On Beast Boy's end, it was still exceedingly odd. Thank yous from Raven were uncommon, but by no means rare and never like this. It might fit with her being really, really worried about those creatures, but that didn't explain away the kiss... unless that was something that had been coming for a while now and the stress just let it happen.

But that would mean... Whoa.

He had no idea what to think of that, or how to feel about it. This was his best friend, after all. But also this was his best friend. The possibilities ran the gamut between really, really good, and 'Brother Blood, Slade and Trigon join the Brotherhood' levels of bad.

“I...”

“You should probably go to bed now. Try and get some sleep.” 'Raven' was back to form and lowering herself into the computer chair. The conversation was over and boy did Raven know how to enforce that if pressed.

“Yeah. Bed. Going there. Maybe sleeping.” He stammered. It was actually a blessing, in his mind, that she was letting him go now. Otherwise, his tiredness, confusion and his just plain 'being Beast Boy' were going to cause him to say or do something that would get him in trouble.

By the time the common room doors closed behind him, Aionor had the floor plan up in a window. A few mouse clicks, and she was running a search on the database. A Boolean search, to be specific: she didn't know what name the main entry would be under.


	5. Love Doctor Cy

“When there's trouble you know what to doooo!” A boisterous voice filled the empty hallway long before their source turned the corner and came into view. “Call Cyborg!” The man himself strutted down the corridor, a freshly rolled stankball balanced in his gigantic mitt.

“He can shoot a rock-et from his shoooooe! 'Cause he's Cyborg!” He didn't care what anyone said, his fans were the best. You didn't hear any Beast Boy theme songs, now did you?

According to Robin, fan mail day (the third Friday of the month, when one of them went to the post office to retrieve the letters from the PO box they set up for fan mail) was not a contest. Easy for him to say, seeing as his fan base consisted of stalker level fan girls and guys that thought they could be just like him by buying a bo staff and a few gallons of hair gel.

It wasn't fan mail day, but Cyborg was having a good day nonetheless. The morning was spent watching Starfire expertly wheedle Robin down from the full blood-work he wanted Cyborg to draw and work up, all the way down to a pass through his med scanner and mass spectrometer to search for foreign particles. Watching Star work on Robin with alternating innocence and sternness was a thing of ultimate comedy.

The only black mark on the day was how strange Beast Boy was acting. His little green buddy was distracted, big time. At breakfast, he cooked up a half pound of bacon instead of tofu bacon by mistake and didn't even act wigged when Robin pointed it out.

Combined with all the nervous little glances he was tossing in Raven's direction, and Cyborg had a good idea what happened: once again, BB had done something outstandingly short-sighted and gotten himself on Raven's bad side.

When that happened, there was only one thing for it: distract the little grass stain from his problems until he was relaxed enough to talk about it, then send him to apologize like always. Hence the stankball. It was getting hurled straight at Beast Boy's head as soon as he opened the door to his room.

And hitting beast Boy in the face with rank laundry called for another stanza!

“Doo-da, doo-da, somethin' like tha—AH!”

The door to the store room he was passing opened and a green sasquatch grabbed him by the shoulders, dragging him bodily into the room and causing him to drop the stankball. Once he was inside, the green cryptid glanced up and down the hall furtively before its eyes landed on the stankball. It wouldn't do to leave evidence of their presence just lying out in front of the door, so it picked it up and tossed it over its shoulder, into the room, pegging a confused Cyborg squarely in the face with the stanky mess.

Only after closing and locking the door did Beast Boy revert to his default form... and realized that he'd just locked himself in with a fuming five hundred pound man-machine. “Um... Sorry?”

Cyborg reached up and very delicately removed a funky undershirt from his face, then brushed a pair of green and purple stripped boxers off his shoulders. “You got one minute to explain why you've been acting like a zombie and I'm covered in stank.” He informed Beast Boy in a serious tone.

Ever short of attention span, Beast Boy narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Why did you have a stankball with you in the first place?”

Now it was Cyborg's turn to laugh nervously. “I was just... doing laundry. That's it. Just collecting the bottom dregs off everyone's hamper for laundry.” Beast Boy glared harder. “Say, let's just forget this big stanky mess and talk about why you pulled me in here?” When that didn't stop the glaring, he followed up with an embarrassingly bad Beast Boy impression. “That sounds like a great idea, Vic! Let's talk about that right now.”

It really was terrible. Terrible enough in fact to earn instant forgiveness from the master of the terrible joke.

Of course. It also bought his mind back to the subject at hand. His ears twitched once, then drooped. “Right. I needed to talk to someone.”

Not a first, but a rarity. Beast Boy normally waited for someone else to notice there was a problem and come talk to him. For him to seek out someone to talk to was major. “Alright, B, what's going on? You dang sure weren't your normal annoying self this morning.” He crossed his arms and leaned back against two stacked crates of light bulbs. “So what'd you do to make Rae mad?”

Beast Boy's face became etched with horror. “She's mad?! What did she tell you?”

“Nothing.” Cyborg said, giving him a funny look. “It was just a guess. That's what's normally eating you when you get like this.”

“Well it's not... as far as I know.”

“So what is? I mean you almost ate bacon this morning. Greasy, delicious bacon! And man, you hate things that are greasy and delicious. So it's gotta be something pretty huge to--”

“Raven kissed me.”

“That'll do.” Cyborg said without fully digesting what this friend said. His CPU shot straight to capacity the moment he did. “Wait, what? Raven... Simone?”

“No, our Raven. You know, quiet, broody, blue cloak? Do you really think there's a better chance of Raven Simone, a celebrity I've never met, kissing me than Raven, who we live with kissing me?”

“Frankly?”

“Yes, frankly.”

“Yeah, I kinda do, B.”

“Yeah, me too.” Beast Boy's ears drooped more, “But I'm telling you, it really happened!”

Cyborg frowned. “Man, I don't wanna call you a liar, but this is Raven. I can't even imagine her hold hands, much less frenching someone.”

The mental image that conjured caused Beast Boy to blush furiously. “Dude! It wasn't like that. On the cheek only! Which is already pretty intense for Raven.”

It was. Cyborg couldn't argue with that, so he asked the obvious question. “So what are you gonna do?”

“Vic, I wouldn't be hiding in a supply room with you and this quarter's birdarang shipment if I knew that. You've gotta help me.”

A sly smile formed on Cyborg's lips. “Help you do what exactly?”

Beast Boy was too engrossed in his thoughts to notice the smile. “Well... I mean we just agreed that Raven doesn't exactly go around kissing guys for no reason, right?”

“Mm-hmm...” The smile got bigger.

“So that means she likes me. Likes me likes me.”

“And just what're you gonna do about it, grass stain? You like her back?”

“I hadn't even thought about it until last night.” Admitted the changeling. “But it's all I thought about the rest of the night... morning. Whatever. It wasn't just the kiss, She like... put her hand on my arm, “ He moved his own hand to the spot she touched without thinking. “And then she thanked me for being there for her.”

“Huh. You two are always looking out for one another.” Cyborg placed his chin in his hand. “Seems like whenever a brawl breaks out, one of you ends up saving the other form something. Like last night when she pancaked those praying mantis looking things that were about to whup your butt.”

“Yeah...” Beast Boy agreed wistfully.

Cyborg snorted at getting Beast Boy to agree with that. “And I mean, you fight like an old married couple, but that didn't get to be an expression because old married folks hate each other. Maybe something really was always there—wouldn't be the first time you were oblivious to something.”

Once again, Beast Boy was too wrapped up in his own concerns to take offense to the playful digs Cyborg was taking at him. “That's exactly what's been going through my head all night, dude. Kinda weird that between us, the girl with trouble showing her emotions sees it before me.”

“There's your answer then.” Cyborg said. “You like her, she likes you. I say go for it; you've got my blessing.”

But Beast Boy wasn't done with his worries just yet. “But Vic, this isn't just some ordinary girl. This is Raven.”

“Well duh.” Cyborg snorted. “She's got enough people in her head for a pick-up game of basketball, and he dad destroyed the world. But in case you didn't notice, you're green and turn into animals. We don't do normal here.”

“Not what I meant.” Beast Boy shook his head. “I mean I have no idea to act around her, you know in this way. This morning, she's all like business as usual and I'm afraid that if I try for another kiss, she'll flip out on me.”

“Hmm. Good point.” Cyborg agreed. “So you're gonna have to take things slow. Remember, she's not used to showing emotions at all and doing it in public is right out, considering how private she is.” And then inspiration struck him. “Oh, but Love Doctor Cy's got the prescription!”

Beast Boy's ears flattened to the sides of his head and he pressed his back against the door. Cyborg in an inspirational mood was ten times as bombastic as Cyborg Classic.

“Two words for ya, B: Movie Night.”

***  
The sleeping potion Aionor quaffed was formulated to put a half-demon to sleep for two full days by psychically paralyzing their mind. But most half demons didn't have the better part of two decades worth of experience courtesy of psychic combat against the living embodiment of all evil with their free will on the line.

So what should have kept Raven completely unconscious for forty-eight hours started to give around twelve.

In a sodden pit at the bottom of a cavern deep beneath the earth, a girl of about seventeen stirred. She was tall, but a few inches shy of Starfire's height, and dressed in a silver breast plate emblazoned with a black, double arched emblem and matching bracers with a black body suit and white jump pants beneath. Heavy metal boots with guards all the way to the knee put even Robin's steel toed footwear to shame. A dark scarf was drawn up over her nose and mouth and one blue eye was obscured by white bangs with the rest of her hair held in a french braid all the way down to the small of her back.

At the moment, she was also restrained by a dark iron band wrapped around her ribs, trapping her arms, and caps made of the same fitted over her hands. Such precautions weren't yet necessary, however, as she was awake, but unable to move.

All Raven knew was that she was most definitely not in her own body, and that through a background of scrapping noises and alien trills, she heard a voice that made her skin crawl. The Puppet King.

She shivered and tensed just at the sound of him, far off in a different part of the cavern. And when she did, a fat, glowing spark of white energy leapt from 'her' hair to fall slowly to the floor. It seemed to roll around there for a few seconds or so, fluctuating slightly and hissing against the moisture on the cavern floor until it was finally extinguished.

Interesting. Now if only she knew how to use it to escape...


	6. The Movie Deal

“I still don't get how a movie night is going to help.” Beast Boy's brows were furrowed as he and Cyborg exited the T-car outside the video store.

“Look, trust me on this.” Said Cyborg. “You like her, right? And you're pretty sure she likes you?”

Beast Boy gave a nervous nod.

“And I know for a fact that neither of you is ever gonna work up the courage for a regular first date. So, we ease you into it.” He gestured to the store.

“With movies?”

“Hell yeah with movies. You see how Rob and Star are every time we have a movie night?” They both were very familiar with the behavior of the Titans' Alpha couple. Even before they became official in Tokyo, they always sat close, even cuddled, their hands 'accidentally' touched and lingered when reaching for snacks, and Star grabbed onto and tried to hide behind Robin whenever something scary happened.

“Raven is not going to let me pull a yawn and reach on her.” Beast Boy pointed out.

“Doesn't have to.” Said Cyborg. “Think of it as a mini-date. You sit next to each other, share a popcorn--”

Beast Boy made a face “Ew, but Rae likes that Kettle Corn stuff. Sweet and popcorn don't mix dude.”

Cyborg glared at him with fire in his eyes. “You will eat it and you will like it I will not let you ruin my reputation as a Love Doctor, you hear me green bean?”

“What reputation? This is the first time you're doing this!”

A look of embarrassment crossed the tin man's face. “Heh. Sorry, got carried away there, B. But seriously, you can take a little sweetened popcorn if it means getting closer to Rae, right?”

Beast Boy hadn't thought about it like that. He should probably get used to thinking of a lot of things like that. Compromise. Sacrifice. He nodded.

“Good man.” Cyborg clapped him on the shoulder and pushed open the door.

The moment he did, they both heard an obnoxiously familiar voice.

“I'm not leaving here without either the disc or the money!” Control Freak was at the counter, shouting and red faced as he confronted the same hapless clerk he harassed the first time the Titans encountered him. He was interrupted by the distinct sound of a cybernetic hand converting into a sonic cannon. “Oh crap.”

“There a problem here?” Cyborg asked, taking aim.

Control Freak turned to find him and Beast Boy ready to leap into action. Then he glared at the clerk. “This is your idea of customer service?”

She ignored him. “Oh thank god you're here! This jerk came back to attack me again!”

“What!” Control Freak bellowed. “This is an outrage! I'm no mere jerk, I'm a villainous jerk!” He blinked. “Wait...”

“Aren't you supposed to be frozen?” Beast Boy asked. He distinctly remembered Control Freak there when they took down the Brotherhood.

“Turns out it's against international law to leave people frozen without a trial.” Control Freak shrugged. Anyone else would have made it an accusation, but he was just telling them what happened. “That, and I cut a deal to rat on Mallah, the Brain and Rouge.”

“B, go find a couple of movies.” Cyborg instructed, rolling his eye. “I got this.”

Control Freak fumed. “Got what?! I'm not even doing anything illegal! She's the bad guy here, aim your cannon thing at her!” The clerk ducked behind the counter as if Cyborg would really do it.

“Say what?” Cyborg raised any eyebrow.

“I'm just here to return this Lightning Bug Blu-ray box set.” He grabbed the idem off the counter and waved it at Cyborg. There's disc in it that's scratched, and she won't do a refund or exchange-- its' almost as big a crime as canceling the show itself was.”

The sonic cannon dipped about an inch. “You can't be serious.”

The clerk peeked from behind the counter. “We reserve the right to deny service to any customer for any reason.” She pointed to the posted sign for emphasis. “And this guy threatened me and trashed the store last time.”

“Then why did you let me give you my money not two days ago?” Control Freak accused.

“That was my day off.” She snapped back “I wasn't here.”

Cyborg groaned and reverted his hand. Of all the stupid...

“Hey Cy, which do you think works better as a date movie: The Annihilator, Extraterrestrials, or Perish Violently?”

Facepalm. Of course, things could get stupider. “Are you kidding me, man? You can't impress a girl with action movies! And what were you thinking with Extraterrestrials? You know how Star feels about movies where aliens are the bad guys. And in case you haven't noticed, Rae's pretty much an alien too.”

He took a deep breath. It wasn't right to take his frustration over Control Freak out on Beast Boy. The whole reason they were here was to help the boy out.

Heaving a sigh, he lowered his voice. “Look, B: put those back and get some romance movies, okay?”

Beast Boy frowned. “But I don't know any romance movies. Not ones that don't make me wanna hork anyway.”

“Ahem.” Far faster than either of them would have imagined, or were comfortable with, Control Freak was standing between them, hands clasped behind his back. “Gentlemen. It has come to my attention that you have a problem that I might be able to assist you with.”

Cyborg gave him a blank stare. “What.”

“Wait, hear me out here.” Control freak raised his hands defensively. “You're trying to find the perfect movie for a special occasion, and I'm all about movies. It's perfect!”

“Man, what do you know about romance movies?” Cyborg was still skeptical.

Control Freak folded his arms and pouted. “Well for starters, I'm the only one of the three of us with a girlfriend.”

Both Beast Boy and Cyborg's jaws dropped.

“Dude, no way. I refuse to believe you've got a girl and I don't.” said Beast Boy.

“Yeah,” added Cyborg, “Where would you find a girlfriend from anyway? The internet?”

Control Freak started to say 'yes', but thought better of it. “Never mind how I have a girlfriend. You guys of all people have no room to mock my romantic life.” He pointed to Cyborg. “Dated a villain and a girl in the wrong timeline.” Then Beast Boy. “Dated the poster girl for the Heel Face Revolving Door, then romanced an evil inkblot.”

“Wait. How did you--” Cyborg started.

“What's a Heel Face Revolving Door?” Beast Boy asked over him.

Control Freak snorted. “You call yourself a geek and you don't know TV Tropes?”

“Dude, I'm kinda busy with the world saving thing.”

“Point.” Control Freak couldn't really argue there. “So do we have a deal or not? I recommend some movies with good romance that won't make you spew and you two get the clerk to exchange my boxed set.”

Beast Boy rubbed his chin. “I don't know. You are a villain. But I am desperate.”

“But this desperate?” asked Cyborg.

“Dude, I was going to rent Perish Violently as a date movie. Yes, I am this desperate.”

“Some girls might like that kind of thing.” Control Freak pointed out. “Speaking of which, mind if I guess who your mystery girl is?”

“Heck no!” Beast Boy blurted out.

“Like it's that hard.” Control Freak rolled his eyes. “Movie night in Titan's Tower, plus all the clues that stretch back to when you guy first formed a team? I'm pretty sure I already know. And don't worry, “He snorted and flashed a cheesy double thumbs up. “I ship it.”

Beast Boy went red while Cyborg scratched his head. “Ship? What's shipping have to do with anything?”

“It's a fandom term.” Control Freak was eager to show off his geeky knowledge. “It's short for—mmph.”

The huge hand of a green gorilla held his mouth closed until he got the idea. Beast Boy reverted to normal form. “As if I needed more embarrassment today. Alright, dude, you got a deal. We need two movies. Give me the boxed set and your receipt and I'll hold up our end.”

“Sweet.” Control Freak grinned. “I'm thinking The Duchess Wife is definitely a sure thing. And if this girl is who I think it is...” He grinned at Beast Boy's discomfort, “Then she'll appreciate Love for Shakespeare. It's an Academy Award winner about the greatest writer in history for her, a comedy for you, and has Dame Judy Dench in a supporting role for everybody.” He took off into the stacks in search of the two films without another word.

“Well, that solves my problem... I guess.” Beast Boy said, walking up to the counter.

Cyborg was still staring in the direction Control Freak had run. “Hey, B? You ever talk to Control Freak like that before? You know, like he was just a person we know instead of a villain?”

“Nope. Weird, huh?”

“Yeah. But what I'm talking about is... how did he know about me and Jinx?”

Beast Boy shrugged. “Maybe she told him? She did use to be bad.”

“:Okay, but how'd he know about Sarasim?”

“Good question. But then again, he's always known way too much about us. It's a little creepy, but he doesn't seem to want to use it against us.”

Cyborg nodded. “I guess you're right. But just in case, I'm gonna run a security check on the cameras in the Tower just in case...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N – I love Control Freak as a character and feel he isn't used enough in TT fan fiction. I don't think the parody names were that difficult or clever, but it feels weird using real work names in the TT universe. Still, Control Freak is clearly recommending The Princess Bride and Shakespeare in Love.


	7. Evidence and Milkshakes

Vanilla ice cream, milk, chocolate malted powder. Blend. Pour.

Ice cream, milk, chocolate malted powder, zorka berries, banana peppers, Tabasco, wintergreen toothpaste. Blend. Pour.

Humming to herself, Starfire placed a straw into both tall milkshake cups and added a cherry on top. Sharing the sweet treat was Robin's reward for finally relenting on the subject of taking blood work.

It was a little silly of her to be so worried about giving a little blood when she was unafraid to face the most diabolical weapons their enemies brought to bear, but it was one thing getting hit in battle and another entirely to allow someone to deal even the tiniest of wounds to you, even if it was done by a friend for ones own good. It was an attack on a Tamaranian's pride to let such a thing happen and as Princess-in-exile she needed to be an example to her people even while light years away.

She arranged a slice of tomato underneath her own milkshake's cherry and glanced past the counter to the couch. “Friend Raven, would you like me to create the delightful milkshake concoction for you as well?”

Aionor was on the couch, keeping up appearances by skimming the Book of Azar until she could get to the evidence locker. Robin and Starfire had fallen asleep in there the night before, blocking her from sneaking in to search for her prize. She slowly turned her head and squinted at the ingredients surrounding the blender.

“Is that a jar of banana peppers? ...And toothpaste?”

“The peppers are most delightfully tangy and the toothpaste adds a pleasant chalky feel to the mouth.” Starfire beamed. She was actually disappointed in the new toothpaste Robin has switched to lately; the grit included to give 'scrubbing action' was too fine for her refined, alien pallet.

“I'll pass.”

Starfire just shrugged. It was only once in a blue moon that Raven took her up on little offers like that, so she wasn't expecting her too. “I can make you one without the extra deliciousness, as Robin like them.” She offered after a second.

Raven would have passed anyway, if only on principle. But Aionor did love sweets and it was all the better tricking her enemy into making one for her. “Actually, I think I will have one.”

“Glorious!” Star floated in her exuberance and started slinging ice cream and malt powder. In no time, a fresh, chocolate malt shake was flown over to Aionor. “Please take the great enjoyment in this, Friend Raven. I wish that I could enjoy it with you, but I intend to enjoy mine as part of the alone time with Robin.”

That made Aionor quirk an eyebrow. “Alone time you say?”

Starfire blushed. “Indeed. Robin is most tense from what happened last night and I hoped that a walk around the island together and drinking the milkshake may relax him.”

“So you'll be out of the tower.”

“But not far.” Star promised.

Far enough. Aionor smirked to herself. “Aren't you worried about Beast Boy and Cyborg teasing you?” She asked aloud, fishing for the whereabouts of the other Titans.

“I last saw them leaving at high speed for the garage, but I do not know where they went. Shall I contact them?”

“No, I was just wondering.” Aionor said trying to keep her excitement out of her voice. “Sounds like I'll finally have some peace and quiet for a little while.”

Starfire smiled. “I hope that it is most pleasant for you. Now, I must go find Robin.” She waved before flying over to grab the shake glasses and then she was gone, flying at speed for the elevator.

Aionor counted to ten to make sure she wasn't going to rush back for something she forgot. Then she snapped the Book of Azar closed and stood up. With none of the Titans around, he posture was most un-Raven-like unless one considered the green cloaked emoticlone, dubbed Brave by Cyborg. She tossed the cloak over her shoulder with a feral grin.

It was time to go to work.

***  
The heavy bag just wasn't cutting it, so Robin was working his way through every bo staff kata he knew, swinging, thrusting, snapping the tip in every possible direction. He was full of nervous energy; a thunderstorm for the soul, just looking for a place to ground its lightning.

His own investigation into the creatures and the old foundry (that's what the lease said about the place, though he'd never seen a foundry like that) had come up empty. Raven had come up empty handed too. So they were back to square one with a murderous horde of monsters on the loose in his city.

Their city. He had to keep reminding himself that it wasn’t just him, that the Titans weren't sidekicks to him like he had been to Batman. They were equals; he was just the tactician, which made him effective leader. Even after all those years, it was still hard for him to let go of his desire for control, even after knowing where that led Batman all too often, even after seeing the dark shadow of that obsession in Slade.

But he was getting better and a big reason for that had just gotten off the elevator outside the training room. The tromp of her boots and the little chell sound when she started to fly gave her away tot he World's Greatest Junior Detective.

He planted the staff in a rest position and turned to the door just as she appeared in the doorway. “Hi Star.”

She was used to him knowing she was coming and answered with a bright smile. “Greetings, Robin. I have prepared the milkshakes for us. I was hoping that we may imbibe them together.”

There was more than one way to get rid of the terrible case of nerves. Robin smiled at her. “Thanks, Star. That sound great. I--” The rest of the sentence had to do with toweling off so he wasn't walking around in a cloud of funk for the rest of the day, but before those words could leave his mouth, there was a straw being shoved in it.

“Wonderful!” Star exclaimed. “Oh, I do hope you find this to be pleasing, I got the instructions from the Earth internet.”

Robin took a sip.

Over the years, he'd built up not so much a taste for Tamaranian cooking as a tolerance to it and an array of techniques to avoid hurting Starfire's feelings with his body's natural reactions to it. Usually, they were very effective. This time, however, a pocket of Tabasco had gone unblended and just so happened to the first thing up the straw. From there, it seemed to go directly to his sinuses.

Before he could catch himself, he started coughing. It took him a moment to get himself together and looked up to see Starfire pursing her lips in an odd expression. “Star...” He started, an excuse for his coughing already forming in his head.

“I believe I accidentally switched out cups.” Starfire said tightly and quickly exchange her for his, taking a long pull to wash the taste of the shake intended for her boyfriend out of her mouth with the spicy tang of peppers and minty freshness of toothpaste. She knew that humans were only able to taste a few tastes and that glorim and bant weren't among them, but still, how did Earthlings stand eating things so frightfully bland when they had plentiful mustard and capers to add much needed bitterness?

***  
The door to the evidence room whooshed open to admit Aionor. The door had been password protected, but once again, the changeling's password was enough. It was becoming more and more fortuitous that she'd duped the green bean.

She wondered if he'd make a nice pet once all was said and done and she was in charge. Maybe a green organ grinder's monkey to clap cymbals and dance for her when she was bored. Or maybe a parrot who was only allowed to sing her praises. The sky was the limit, really. And it was a far better fate than she had in store for the half demon.

Striding in, she took stock of the room. Like his mentor, Robin liked to take trophies; they were mounted on pedestals alone two walls in the room; one of Slade's masks, Trident's... trident, Control Freak's first remote. Her gaze lingered over that last one. How could such a soft dork get his cheeto dust covered hands on something so powerful? Maybe she's take that too if she had time. But there was something mote important here.

The file cabinets and clerk's desk with its green shaded lamp were at the very end. But where...

Once she started looking with magical senses, it was easy to find. The chest was little more than a metal box, featureless in the dim light, but Raven's senses could pick out the protective runes drawn all over its surface. It was bolted to the floor in a surreptitious manner, hidden in plain sight under a stack of papers. Robin must have intended to pass it off as some sort of modern art table.

She brushed the papers to the floor, her target now fully in sight. The lid had been welded shut, but that wasn’t much of an obstacle for her, or rather Raven.

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.” She droned, overshadowing the lid with dark energy and tearing the weld off at the seams. Inside, secured to the bottom of the chest by chains as a last line of defense as the book.

The book. It looked utterly mundane, bound in pale leather with silver accents in the corners and a silver circle in the center. The journal of Rorek of Nol. The prison of the dread dragon Malchior.

Another application of Raven's telekinesis snapped the chains and drew the book into her hands.

Wait a moment. A voice came from the book, still weak after all this time from being resealed. You aren't Raven.

“Very perceptive.” She said and unceremoniously stowed the dragon and his book in her cloak. It was a huge book, but Raven had, over the years, tired of lugging huge tomes around and especially of shielding them from the elements or sudden attacks and installed an enchanted pocket to stow her reading material in.

Now she just had to get back to the mirror, tell him to switch her and Raven, and be gone without a trail for the Titans to follow. That would be easy enough with the other Titans otherwise indisposed. After the complications of last night, it looked like it was clear sailing from—

“Yo, Rae, we're back, where you at?” Cyborg's voice bellowed from the vicinity of her hip. Swiping the communicator form it's clip, she opened it to reveal Cyborg's grinning face.

She should have expected that.

“My room.” She droned.

“Well get your butt up here. Me and B picked up Chinese for dinner. Got your favorite too: Shrimp Chow Fun. And after that, we're havin' a movie night. Got your favorite for that too: kettle corn.”

Aionor raised any eyebrow. Was he testing her? There was an odd tenor to his voice that might indicate that and it just seemed too weird that the emotionless half demon would go for sweetened popcorn. Of course, to be honest with herself, she just didn't want to have even that much in common with Raven. Luckily, an appropriate response in either case was the same while in character as Raven.

“Hurray.” She deadpanned.

“That's the spirit, Rae. I think you'll be singin' a different tune later though.” Cyborg laughed before cutting the transmission.

Aionor sighed. She would have to wait a bit longer and sneak out when everyone was asleep. It was a good thing she had plenty of time.

***  
Deep in the remote cavern, Raven—the real Raven—concentrated. This strange body's powers were a lot like Starfire's in that they were emotion based. They were also a lot like her own in that they were definitely an innate magical gift unlike Starfire's biologically derived abilities.

Instead of Righteous Fury, this other girl's static bursts were fueled by regular, unfiltered Rage. And with Trigon's banishment removing her fear of him controlling her and the current feeling of utter violation at having her body stolen, Raven had rage to spare.

A blast of static coursed through the clamps pinning her arms and down into the locking mechanism. It hadn't been designed to take into account the power this body could generate when fueled by a truly angry half demon daughter of the embodiment of all that was evil.

The latch melted and she was free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N – Are Aionor's powers starting to look a bit familiar now? If not, don't worry, all will be explained in due time.


	8. Too Comfortable

For once, Aionor found herself not minding having her plans derailed. Dinner came with a show.

Beast Boy and Cyborg had arranged themselves at the table before anyone else arrived so that there was a single seat between them and two seats together. As keeping Starfire from sitting next to Robin was, well keeping a super strong alien from her boyfriend, Aionor had no choice but to take the single seat, which was next to Beast Boy.

“Hey Rae,” the changeling leaned too close to be comfortable and proffered a bite of his General Tso's Tofu with his chopsticks. “Wanna try this? It's really good.”

“Man, she does not want none of your tofu.” Cyborg said automatically. The mere mention of soy offended his carnivore sensibilities to the exclusion of anything else. “And that's just wrong in so many ways. All that good sauce wasted on stupid fake meat.”

Ah, the traditional meat vs. tofu debates. Aionor knew these well and prepared herself to settle in for a few minutes of inanity. Idly, she wondered if Beast Boy was even aware that there were vegetarian dishes that didn't include soy. Surely, even Cyborg couldn't object to pasta or grilled zucchini.

The battle was over before it could start though. As much as he loved quarreling with Cyborg, Beast Boy hadn't lost sight of the night's agenda. “Dude.” He said, packing several sentences worth of meaning into that one word and giving Cyborg a hard look.

Almost immediately, the half robot saw his mistake. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you were Aionor, hoping to see him make a fool of himself), acting was not among his many talents. “Um, I mean, go ahead and try it Raven.”

Robin dropped his chopsticks in alarm and Starfire paused in devouring her surprisingly pedestrian double order of pork lo mein (though it was swimming in soy sauce) to look on in confusion.

Cyborg ofered a crushingly fake smile and rubbed sweat off the back of his head. “You know, so you can tell him how nasty is is, of course.”

That satisfied Starfire, who returned to cramming noodles into her insatiable maw, but Robin continued looking at him like he had blow a logic circuit.

Aionor's fortune cookie was ground to powder inside a black aura as she fought to keep from busting out laughing. So Cyborg knew about what happened the night before and was trying to help Beast Boy. She was leaving quite the little drama bomb brewing for Raven when she got back. Maybe she'd delay her plans a few days just to watch the chaos unfold.

Now to make it worse.

“Alright.” She said to Beast Boy, heaving a beleaguered sigh. “Just this once.” His ears perked up as she leaned over, brushing her shoulder against his, and ate the morsel. Tofu wasn't something she minded eating, so she didn't have to act when she chewed as if considering and gave a small nod.

“Not something I would eat every day, but not bad.” She was careful to keep emotion out of the words. She imagined that was ambiguous enough that Robin wouldn't get suspicious, but Beast Boy could read volumes into it. Judging by the changeling's gobsmacked expression and Robin still focusing on Cyborg's own lapse in character, she succeeded.

Dinner went on for a bit longer, and once the containers were cleared away, it was time for the movie.

Once more, Cyborg and Beast Boy rigged the seating arrangement in Beast Boy's favor: Cyborg in the center with the remote and personal tub of ButterTime Extra Butter popcorn (which he still drizzled two tablespoons of salted butter over). Beast Boy sat to his left, meaning that there was room for two people to Cyborg's right and room for Raven right beside Beast Boy. To seal the deal, he was holding the bowl of kettle corn in his lap.

Robin and Starfire took the other part of the couch with a bowl of salted, no butter popcorn between them. Not much of it was going to be eaten anyway, as movie night between those two meant cuddle time. Even with this as a given, Star was excited as always to find out the night's movies.

“Please friends, which offerings from the Holly Wood will we be enjoying tonight? Something frightening, where humans are portrayed as having their blood under immense pressure, yes?”

Cyborg chuckled, recalling how everyone had once naively expected Star to be bothered by splatterfests. Tough chance, considering she was a warrior princess from another world.

“Nah, Star, nothing gory tonight. We got The Princess Bride and Shakespeare in Love.”

Starfire's face lit up and she floated right off the couch. “How wonderful! I love them both and view them every time they are available on the cable television!”

Robin's reaction was less excited and more... Robin. “Wait. You and Beast Boy threw a movie night and there's not nauseating grindhouse stuff or zombie movies?”

“Hey! Sometimes they've got vampires or werewolves too.” Beast Boy countered.

“You know what I mean.” Robin folded his arms.

Cyborg shrugged. “Don't look at us, Control Freak picked 'em out for us.” He didn't bother hiding the smirk at the alarm that played over Robin's face.

“Control Freak?! He's back? When did this happen.”

Starfire landed by his side, confused. “But the Control Freak is the 'dork'. How does he have good taste in movies?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Star.” Cyborg said. “And as for your questions, Rob, Apparently they let him out. But it's cool... weird but cool. I think he might be reformed. He picked movies for us in exchange for us helping him return this bum DvD he bought. No blastin' or anything.”

Robin didn't want to let this go. As anyone in the Bat Family knew, criminals rarely reformed. How often did the Riddler 'go straight' and the Penguin seemed to try and become a legitimate business man every few years. But they always backslid. He would need to keep tabs on—

“Robin.” Starfire said softly in his ear. “Might we please view the romantic and yet comical movies without allowing the formerly evil 'dork' to ruin it?”

Those green on green eyes melted his resolve. “...sure Star.”

They watched The Princess Bride first. Aionor had never seen it, having avoided fantasy as a genre whenever possible, but as there wasn't much overt magic, she found herself enjoying it. It was only in the interest of keeping up appearances that she rolled her eyes and scoffed quietly at the romantic parts and the jokes (though three plates in the kitchen didn't survive the 'peanut' line).

It surprised her that Beast Boy didn't try some stupid move or other on her. They were an hour in and the worse he did was 'accidentally' reaching for popcorn as she was, thereby touching hands. She almost felt offended. What, she wasn't good enough to try some tired yawn and reach on?

She was admonishing herself for even thinking something so stupid when she noticed Cyborg nudge Beast Boy with his elbow. When he got the the changeling's attention, he inclined his head to where Robin and Star were huddled close, contented looks on their faces.

What followed was a rapidfire exchange of meaningful glances in the dark, which Aionor read with Raven's empathy and translated for her own entertainment.

What?

You know what, grass stain. You know what you've gotta do.

Dude! Are you crazy? She'll kill me!

She already kissed ya, snuggling is nothing compared to that.

Wanna bet?

Look, just do it.

But what if I'm wrong? What if she just had, like Affection running loose last night and...

YOU GET YOUR GREEN BUTT OVER THERE AND TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS RIGHT NOW!

Aionor glanced away from them as Beast Boy cringed., then pretended to catch him staring at her. Oh yes, this was going to be fun once Raven was back in her short, pale little body. She braced for the inevitably awkward move.

It didn't come. Instead, there was a sudden weight on her lap. Looking down, she saw a small, green kitten looking up at her sweetly. It was both an incredibly ballsy (he was now in her lap, after all), and incredibly cowardly move. As he's pointed out before, no one could resist The Face, so really he was taking advantage of that to avoid rejection. He would probably die of embarrassment If he ever stopped to think about what position he was in.

She rolled her eyes, but in the interest of making life Hell for Raven later, began gently scratching his ears in what she hoped felt like an affectionate manner. The unusually colored kitten purred and curled up contentedly and both of them turned their attention back to the movie.

As she watched, Aionor let her mind wander. It had taken her a long time to get to this point. From gathering intel from her unwitting source, to securing and reanimating the Puppet King, to traveling to the Realm of Sal Quidar to capture and enslave her zaigest hive, she had been working for almost two years; since the aborted End of the World to achieve her goal.

Now that she was so close, she couldn't help but wonder if there was an easier way. She could just go back and kill Raven before she woke up, and stay with the Titans in her body. One swift move and she would have fame, fortune... a family, strange though they might be. She would be viewed as a hero, maybe even become on in truth down the line.

Sure, the other Titans would find 'Raven's' change in personality odd, but surely it would be a welcome change form the moody demon. They would adjust. Her gaze traveled down to the green kitten on her lap. He was actually pretty adorable in that form. And sure, he was a green freak and even thinking back to that kiss made her gorge rise, but there was a stab of jealousy in seeing someone try and be so charmingly awkward for the demon of all people when no one did the same for her.

And affection was affection, right?

The original plan, though she still had a number of objectives to accomplish, offered so many other perks though. Things like an unstoppable and ancient dragon on her side, strong enough even to make the Kyrptonian in Metropolis bow down, a long running and painful humiliation for the half-demon for bucking her fate, and most important, raising a colossal middle finger to her own destiny.

Oh yes. Breaking the chain of fate that had been around her neck since the day she was born was worth giving up everything else: Friends. Family. Love.

It was fitting that her forsaking of love coincided with Wesley and Buttercup's big kiss.

It was even more fitting that the alarm interrupted both.

Robin was too busy dis-tangling himself from Star to notice Beast Boy scrambling off Raven's lap and resuming human form, but it didn't get past Starfire. She smiled giddily even as Cyborg switched the big screen form the movie to the crime scanner.

Aionor's racing mind came to a screeching halt as the screen showed them the source of the disturbance.

Patrons were fleeing the rooftop dining area of the Titans' favorite pizza parlor as while sparks lashed out everywhere, igniting anything that could burn. In the middle of the chaos was a girl their age, eyes squeezed tight, trying to catch her breath: Raven in Aionor's body.


	9. The Matter of Raven

Disclaimer: This is a fan work created at no profit and for entertainment purposes only. The author acknowledges that Teen Titans and related characters are property of Warner Entertainment.

Teen Titans – What Grows From Deception  
Chapter 9 – The Matter of Raven

With the latch melted, Raven had little trouble slipping out of the contraption that bound her arms. But that had been the easy part. She knew nothing about her surroundings save for the fact that she was in a cold, damp pit. There was a light somewhere above, but it was so weak and so dim that all it did was add texture to the shadows.

In her real body, her half demonic nature afforded her passable night vision, but the one she found herself in now had night vision only slightly better than human. The upshot, she was noticing, as she slowly rose to a sitting position and rested there, trying to think of her next move, was that this body was far more dexterous than her own, and had much better hearing.

And that hearing was telling her a great deal.

The Puppet King was muttering to himself somewhere above her, complaining about how boring his role in 'her' plan was and how he couldn't wait to be given his 'share'. Nothing specific or useful, to an extent that Raven decided he probably knew very little of the plan in the first place.

Even using powers she didn't understand, in a body she was unfamiliar with, she figured she could very easily capture him and beat everything he knew out of him. What stopped her from doing just that was the other sound she heard, or rather the many, many other sounds.

What sounded like dozens of picks were striking stone, scraping against it, and breaking pieces off. Along with that came the sound of inhuman creatures breathing, hissing, moving over one another. There had to be dozens, maybe hundreds, all working constantly to move and shape tons of stone.

Occasionally, she could make out something moving near the lip of the pit, it's body serpentine, but with an odd shaped head and scything limbs. She only saw them for a few seconds before the Puppet King's controller ripped her from her body, but she knew that these were magical creatures not of this Earth. And summoning them was a skill far beyond that of the powerful, but limited Puppet Master.

Later, she would blame shock and the residual effects of the sleeping potion for it taking so long, but it finally hit her: If she was in this strange body, able to access its powers, then whoever was in hers could do the same, only with the advantage of planning and study.

It wasn't arrogance, but cold logic that brought about the most frightening thought; if she was lethally motivated, her powers could utterly dismantle most of the team. Many were the nightmares she'd suffered wherein she swiftly and cruelly dismantled Cyborg, triggered all of Robin's explosives inside his belt, and mode-locked Beast Boy into something that could be easily stomped, and telekineticly smothered Starfire. The nightmares she felt less guilty about involved Star surviving to avenge the others with her alien strength or Beast Boy becoming, of all things, a dragon to burn her away.

All that was now in the hands of someone how not only didn't have her drive to be good, but no love of her friends. She would not stand for this.

Before she even realized what was happening, the pit was illuminated by brilliant, white sparks that Cascaded down her legs to cash forcefully into the ground. By the time she did realize it, she was rising.

Resolve, determination, maybe it was just strength of will. That was the fuel that powered this form's flight. And Raven didn't waste it. Not only did she harden her will to get out of this and stop whoever was threatening her friends, but she fixed the nightmare images of her body killing them in her head to fuel the rage that gathered in blazing orbs of ball lightning in her hands.

She bounded out of the pit like a comet in reverse, the nimbus of light she exuded throwing everything into sharp relief. The pit she was in was actually the floor of a much larger pit, almost as big around as the 'stalk' of Titan's Tower. There were creatures like the ones the other Titans had fought there, only their scythe claws were thicker and more broad, designed for digging instead of fighting. They were digging rooms into the walls of the pit, leaving humps of stone, which smaller versions of their kind, with straight-edged arm blades were chiseling rough tables and seats.

Ringing the pit, which was now clearly a hastily dug prison, were a trio of the normal bladed warrior caste of the creatures. They gave hisses of alarm that were cut off when Raven hurled the gathered ball lightening into them. Magic reacted with magic and the monsters dissolved into motes of rapidly dissipating energy.

Somewhere, she heard the Puppet King shout in surprise, but still she rose, seeking the exit. Instead, she found something that almost stopped her heart.

It was a stalactite large around as the pit below, which meant it could have fit several small houses inside its volume, but in addition, it was at least five stories high, from tip to ceiling. And it was pocked with holes, the entrances of which, all seemed to contain more warrior creatures. It took only a second for her to take it for what it was: a hive.

Not only did someone bring those creatures to Earth, but they were breeding them there. Soon, they would have an army.

Without thinking, she paused to gape at it, which proved to be a mistake. The warriors manning the entryways screamed their alarms and leaped out into empty space to reach her. Instinctively, she threw herself backward, expecting to see the beasts plummet to the floor almost six stories below.

But they didn't. Their ribs spread out and expanded, flattening their bodies into broad ribbons, which glided even in the still air of the cavern. They weren't warriors at all, but a lighter type built for defending the hive. Their tails ended in barbed harpoons and even gliding, they were easily able to maneuver toward her.

Raven hurled lightening into them, but more were leaping off the hive to attack her every minute and more were coming off the walls behind her to join the battle. No matter how many she took down, it was only a matter of time before she was mobbed, dragged down, and killed.

But if that happened, Her friends, the only family she had in this world, would be left completely vulnerable to whoever stole her body. Would they figure out it was an imposter before it was too late? Could one of Robin's brilliant strategies pull them through even against her powers? Would Starfire, if it came to that, bring herself to end her? Maybe one of Cyborg's creations could merely contain her. Or Beast Boy... she couldn't predict what he would or could do to save the day against a false Raven, he played everything by ear and by his own admission, was 'dumb enough to do anything'.

She didn't want to imagine any of it though. The thought of her friends being forced to attack her sickened her more than the idea of being killed. 

Another blast of lightning felled three more of the monsters and she managed to get her back to the wall. Maybe she could at least put enough of a dent in their numbers to make a difference. Maybe her friends would remember her for that, if they every found out.

For the first time in her life, she was losing herself in rage and pain without feeling the creep of Trigon's influence. It was numbing and it made time seem to stretch out. She thought about how much she would miss them, miss the tower, miss fighting evil, even little things like hanging out at the park and celebrating victories at the pizza place.

What she would give to not be there in that cavern anymore. To be somewhere familiar. She'd even visit the mall every day and listen to en eternity of bad jokes for that. The well of energy flared with her thoughts, even as she let loose on another group of gliders. Whiteness overtook everything in her vision and an electric sizzle filled the air. She shut her eyes tightly against the light and just kept firing.

The first glider won through, it's claws raking out in a killing X shaped swipe. Instead of bone and flesh, it clove into solid rock and a hail of sparks that burned it agonizingly. Other gliders followed, landing on the wall in confusion before shrieking and hissing their fury over their lost quarry.

***  
The Titans gasped as the fulled security footage played back of the white haired girl appearing in the middle of their favorite pizza parlor's outdoor dining area and blasting everything in sight with her eyes closed. For them, just wasn't just a criminal, this was a personal attack and one with such a brazen disregard for human life that it had to be answered with a vengeance.

Aionor couldn't decide if that couldn't have gone better if she'd planned it herself, or that this was the part where her entire plan fell apart. The Titans were sure to pound on Raven for that, but then Raven was in her body and had just announced her presence and primary ability to the world.

Robin rose from his seat, flaring his cape as his did with a look of cold determination on his face. “Titans. Go.” It wasn't a declaration, it was a cold, clear order.

The situation was clearly escaping Aionor, but luckily, as in all things, lying was the solution to all her problems.

“Wait.” She said, as loudly and firmly as Robin's order.

The Boy Wonder glared at her for countermanding him, but all things said, he was a good enough leader to hear her out. The others stopped in their tracks and turned to listen.

She looked to Beast Boy, keeping her face stony. “This is what I was concerned about last night. That woman is a sorceress who's been associated with those creatures before. Her name is Aionor and she is as summoner and a--” What was that word the geek used in his stupid game? Oh yeah, “--beguiler of the eleventh circle. Her minions are hive minded creatures called zaigests, and she can enslave you just by speaking to you.”

“That would have been useful to know earlier.” Robin groused.

“I wanted to make certain before alarming the team unnecessarily. Aionor is not the only one who uses the zaigest.”

Robin accepted this with a curt nod before turning the Cyborg. “Cy, can you--” 

“Way ahead of ya, Rob.” Cyborg said, already fiddling with his in-arm computer. “I'll reconfigure my left sonic cannon into a sonic damper. By sampling her voice screaming from the footage, I can pump out a noise canceling algorithm that'll keep her silenced. Just stay within line of sight, ya'll. Otherwise, it doesn't work.”

“It'll have to do.” Robin agreed. “Now let's move.”

“Onward to battle!” Starfire shouted confidently, leading the way out the doors.

“I'll catch up.” said Aionor. “I have a book that has a spell we might need. Just need to go grab it.”

Robin and Cyborg both nodded and ran out, leaving her and Beast Boy. The changeling stopped at the door and cast a look back at her. “Hey. If this Aionor person really worries you, don't worry; I'll watch your back.” He didn't wait for a reply, just flashed a goofy grin and dashed off.

Aionor rolled her eyes. “Just another reason to hate Raven.” She assured herself before wrapping herself in the aforementioned girl's soul-self and teleporting to the evidence room.


	10. Bad or Sad?

No one questioned Beast Boy riding with Cyborg to the scene of 'Aionor's' attack. Though he could transform into an animal that flew, he often rode with his best bud out of a combination of laziness and desire for conversation. This time, the conversation was a bit more specific in its topic.

“So...” Beast Boy started.

“I gotta admit, little dude, I didn't think you had it in you.” Cyborg said, as the launched out of the garage and out over the ocean on the T-car's hover jets. “Nicely done.” He gave his green friend a hearty thumbs up.

“Dude, what are you talking about? I totally choked!”

“That was choking?”

“Duh. I do the kitty-cat bit like all the time with the girls. Like when they're stressed, or just feeling down. Works better than jokes most of the time, let me tell ya. Plus, you know, petting feels good.”

Cyborg tried hard not to take his eye off where he was going, but it was very hard. “You mean you've done that before? The whole thing, jumping up n their laps and all?”

Looking out at the bay, Beast Boy shrugged. “Come to think of it, Raven usually brushes me off to the side and pets me one handed while she reads. Star's cool with lap kitty though.”

“You've been in Star's lap?”

“Yeah?”

“Does Robin know?”

Beast Boy looked at him askance for a moment before it finally clicked as to why Robin shouldn't know. Another moment brought to mind visions of a steel tipped boot rapidly approaching his head. “Oh no! I didn't... and... but I was a cat so it doesn't....” One more thing clicked in his head, namely Cyborg's earlier praise of his actions. His entire body froze. “And I just did that with Raven?!”

Chuckling, Cyborg punched his friend lightly in the shoulder. “You bet you did, and this time you didn't get put off to the side, now did you?”

Words, many words died in the changeling's throat. Forgotten was the threat of a high speed kung-fu beatdown, or even his lingering fear of Raven splattering him over his unknowingly forward actions. She'd accepted it when before she rejected it.

“Yo, Earth to BB, you still in there man?” Somehow, when he wasn't looking, they've ended up cruising down Jump's surface streets instead of over its bay. Cyborg laughed again. “What's that word from the Disney movie? 'Twitterpainted'?”

Finally unfrozen, Beast Boy chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. Time to change the subject. “So, new villain. What do you think, Vic; bad or sad?”

Cyborg decided to play along. There would be plenty of time for teasing later. “I got a bad feeling that smart money's on 'bad'. The sad-sacks tend to just hit a bank and act goofy. This girl just whet bananas blasting at innocent people.”

“Yeah, bad then.” Beast Boy frowned. His ears perked up a second later. “Hey, if she's bad, maybe it's a chance to pull out some new material. You know, some morphs I don't use all that much?”

“You've doing it to try and impress Rae, ain't ya?”

“...”

“Come on...”

“Okay, yeah, I am.”

“Heh. Well alright then, but first, let's go for something old school.” He pointed dead ahead. They had arrived, just in time to see the mystery girl 'Raven' called Aionor stop blasting. “Looks like she's still on the second story.”

Beast Boy grinned. “One Glide & Gun coming up. Got your anti-talkie thing ready?”

Cyborg reconfigured his free arm into a sonic cannon, but instead of firing, it just hummed shrilly. “The second she talks, nobody's gonna ear her.”

***  
It took a while before Raven realized that she wasn't being ripped to shreds and in fact, wasn't even in the cavern anymore. Afraid to let up on the electrical firestorm she'd called up, she cracked one eye to see what was going on. What she saw made her stop immediately.

The pizza parlor—the one she'd just been wishing she'd be able to visit again—was in ruins around her. The electrical blasts she'd meant for the gliders attacking her had instead burned, cracked, and melted the seating and fixtures and sent the clientele fleeing for their lives. The sight of it made her heart beat in her throat and her legs feel weak. She had no time to regret what she'd done because a very familiar voice shouted from somewhere to her left.

“Yo! This is our hangout. Get your own!” She looked to find a green pterodactyl lifting Cyborg up above the railing around the seating area. Both of his arms were converted to sonic cannons, but he fired only one, which she dodged only by the grace of her current body's athleticism.

She ended up performing a shoulder roll into the cover of an overturned table. “Wait!” She cried out, but when she tried to explain the situation, no sound came out. How was that even possible? There was no time to ponder this, as her ears picked up the unique sound of Starfire in flight. Looking up, she found the alien princess flying in low, carrying Robin under his arms.

The boy wonder dipped into his utility belt and came up with a trio of discs, which he hurled at her with expert precision.

Having seen them often enough to recognize them as explosives, she braced for pain. But her body had other ideas. Reflex took over and spheres of static ignited around her hands as she bought them up to fend off shrapnel. Instead, they did far more: namely, utterly destroying the discs before they even came close.

Beast Boy deposited Cyborg among the wrecked tables and resumed human form. “Whoa. She took out your disc thingies, Rob.”

A frustrated growl was Robin's only response as he launched himself from Starfire's grasp, extending his bo staff even as he administered a flying kick. Raven only barely sidestepped, getting a good view of every tread on the sole of his boot as she did.

Robin landed and pivoted, bringing the staff down in a vertical strike that would have hit her if she wasn’t already back-peddling from him. A quick jab caught her in the stomach and doubled her over, leaving her open for another downward stroke. Again, reflexive defense came into play. A hand blazing with electricity intercepted the titanium steel weapon, conducting a painful charge into its wielder. Robin screamed and went down convulsing.

A gasp from Raven was lost to Cyborg's invention, and out of reflex, she rushed to his side, which, in context, looked a lot more like moving to finish him off. She didn't even see the orange fist coming before she was sent flying against the railing, which bent and buckled around her.

“You will not harm Robin, or our beloved purveyor of cheese covered bread.” Starfire said as she came to hover over her fallen boyfriend. Her fist was cocked back in a promise that she would enforce this mandate given half the chance.

Temporarily punch-drunk, Raven idly pondered the irony of Starfire complaining about damage to the pizza place. The haze cleared quickly though and her intelligence returned. She couldn't talk, but she could gesture. The others probably wouldn't listen, but Beast Boy would almost certainly jump to the conclusion that she was trying to play charades. At least that's what she hoped.

Still leaning against the dangerously unstable rail, she tried to wave her hands to tell them to stop, to parley.

“She's casting a spell! Get her!”

“Of all the times to have a moment of prescience, you choose this one?” She growled at Beast Boy even though he couldn't hear. He leapt into the air and transformed as he came, becoming a huge bird with a high crest, wings too small for flight, and two claws that could disembowel a wild board. A cassowary.

Some part of her brain, one that was still a little loopy from Star's punch, was impressed that he was finally showing some range beyond going immediately for wolf or gorilla form. The rest of her was occupied by desperately throwing herself back and away from the powerful beak about the chomp her nose.

Back and away, however, meant putting pressure on the railing, which after taking a glancing blow from the sonic cannon and the full force of a Starfire-launched Raven had had it. Metal groaned an instant before it snapped.

Panic gripped Raven and she fleetingly wished she was safe on the ground. A burst of static surrounded her body and she disappeared, appearing an instant later on the ground, at exactly the spot she'd been concentrating on. 

“Well... that explains how I got to the pizza parlor.” She groaned, still silenced to the rest of the world. A familiar, and now chilling pair of sounds filled the air and she fell into a perfect split, leaning forward so her chest touched the ground to minimize her profile just as a combined barrage of starbolts and a sonic burst demolished the storefront behind her.

A second later, she rolled to the side just to avoid a steel tipped boot, as it slammed into the ground where her shoulder had been. Knowing that Robin would never let her stand up as long as he was anywhere near him, Raven concentrated further down the street and willed herself to teleport.

It worked and she used muscle memory combined with combat training she never thought she'd find a use for the kip up. A bugling roar alerted her to a green pachycephalosaurus charging her. She leapt back and rolled over the hood of a car as Beast Boy slammed into it at speed. The impact partially wrapped the door around his bony, dome-like skull.

Raven landed on the other side and knelt down, trying to catch her breath. She had a new respect for their enemies, even jokes like Dr Light or Johnny Rancid: her friends were a terror to fight against. The only thing that could make it more terrifying would be...

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.” The car she was sheltering behind became sheathed in the dark aura of a soul-self. Her soul-self. It was all the warning she needed to take flight in a burst of flaring static. She was just in time too, as the car lurched violently sideways, colliding with a wall with enough force to crush it nearly flat.

“You.” She snarled at her own ashen face, which wore a smirk that normally only appeared when it as accompanied by an extra set of red eyes. Rage filled her and called up a variable hell-storm of static arcs between her upraised hands.

“What was that?” Aionor asked, putting on her best Raven impression. “I couldn't hear you.”

Snarling her frustration and rage, Raven poured more power into her hands and prepared to send the whole thing at Aionor. She didn't care how hurt her body, she could heal. All that mattered in this moment was making her pay. If she was still n her own body at the moment, she would have reverted to her full demonic form.

Starfire hit her from behind with a flying tackle. It made her back bow in an agonizing manner and what was worse, it made her lose control of the chaotic storm of energy she'd summoned. It came cascading down around them, but where Aionor's body was immune to her powers, Star's was now.

Never in all of her time with the team had Raven head Starfire scream like that. The vise-like grip around her waist loosened and Star fell way. Her hair was smoking as she spiraled toward the ground. Just before she hit the ground, Robin swung past, catching her and pulling her to safety behind a car.

At the same time, one hundred and fifty pounds of furious, green orangutan slamming into Raven, wrapping her in a crushing hug while dragging her from the sky. He made sure she hit the bed of the pickup truck they landed in first with all his weight on top of her and not for a second did he let up on the pressure around her midsection.

Her ribs compressed and it started to become hard to breath. “Beast Boy, please.” She forced out, trying to form each word carefully and clearly on her lips. It was her last ditch hope that he knew how to read lips. Salvation came in the form of a creeping black aura that engulfed her, and mercifully limited the crushing force exerted on her.

“I'll deal with her, Beast Boy.” Aionor informed him, floating down into the back of the truck with them. “Go check on Star.”

Beast Boy let go and reverted to human. “Are you sure?”

“Mage versus mage. That's the only way it can end.” Aionor droned. He frowned, but nodded before hopping off the back of the truck.

The moment he was gone, Aionor leered menacingly. “I just didn't want him to hurt my body too much. Besides, you and I? We need some alone time.” Raven's eyes darted around for someone else and found them all tending to Starfire. The body-thief laughed. “You're right, Rae, this isn't very private at all. But don't worry, I know just the place—meet you there.”

With that, she telekineticly hurled Raven high over the city with the speed of a humanoid javelin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This extra-long chapter brought to you by my love of complexly choreographed fight scenes. If you want more superheroic action, check out my website (in my profile), which is a huge archive of original superhero fiction, forming not just a series, but a full on comic book universe.


	11. Face Off

The cocoon of dark energy held up through her trip through the building's roof, only to dissolve ten feet above the floor. Raven landed hard in a heap. She lay there long minutes, trying to force air back into her lungs.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the silhouette of a gigantic raven pass through the far wall. It didn't head for her, but disappeared into another part of the building. A moment later, a low hum signaled that someone had restored power to the place. The lights came up, fouling what little night vision she had.

When she could see again, she realized that Aionor had thrown her there for a purpose: the ruined building where it all began. Something made a hollow, metallic sound, like the cowling being pulled back from a piece of machinery.

Raven forced herself up on one knee, aimed her fist, and directed a blast of static in that direction. Something exploded in a satisfying conflagration. A hard, tight-lipped smile came to her lips. She was getting used to being able to unleash her emotions and having the resultant destruction be intended.

Her satisfaction was short lived as her soul-self glided silently out of the wreckage. It made its way to a clear space about twenty feet away and from its center rose Aionor with a small hand mirror in one hand and a thick book in the other.

“Hey there, Rae. Nice to finally meet you in person. Though you face... it looks kind of familiar.” Raven answered with twin static blasts, which Aionor easily deflected with a shield. “You know, if we were each in our own bodies right now, I would have had enough respect for your abilities to realize I'm never going to manage just blasting you in the face.”

Raven gathered another volley in her hands and gave the woman wearing her body a hard look. “Just who are you? Why did you do this?”

Aionor gave her a mocking bow. “Lady Aionor of Nol, Final Scion of Nol at your service, Raven, Gem of Trigon. Formal enough for you?” She giggled, but it wasn't a happy sound and whatever emotion fueled it caused a broken gear to crumple to half its size. “As for what I want...” She held up the book. “Recognize this?”

Indeed she did. “No! You can't! You have no idea what that really is?” All thought of fighting slipped her mind as she recalled the hurt and horror that book had caused.

“I don't? Because I was thinking it was a prison for a three thousand year old Dark Tyrant Dragon named Malchior. I might not be sure though, because I've only heard that story every day of my life!” Machinery, pistons and catwalk ladder all around twisted, cracked and exploded all around her.

Pieces were coming together in Raven's head. “You're a descendant of Rorek, the wizard who sealed Malchior in the first place. I know I let him get free before, and the Brotherhood managed to create some sort of facsimile body for him during their attack, but I can assure you that he's never getting out again. The first time was a mistake I'll never repeat again; you didn't have to do this to make sure he stays sealed, we aren't villains.”

Aionor stared at her for a long moment. It occurred to her that she could have played that exact angle and gotten the book without the elaborate plot. That made her fell rather stupid in retrospect. Of course, she'd never admit that. Spreading the pain was more fun anyway. “Ugh. I cannot believe you're this dumb, Rae-Rae. Here, I feel sorry for you—take the book back.”

A telekinetic thrust turned the book into a missile. Raven didn't see it coming and it took her directly in the chest, knocking her back several feet and taking her down to the floor. She recovered a moment later to find Aionor using her soul-self to lift a huge pile of debris high over her head.

“You're a big, tough half demon.” Aionor mused, “This won't kill you, but will knock you out pretty well. And I've left plenty of things to entertain you back at the tower until we meet again.” She raised the mirror to her face. “Puppet King? Now.”

Raven's eyes widened as she saw the plot about to unfold. She shouted wordlessly and charged another static blast.

“Oh no you don't!” Raven glanced to her right to find the source of the new voice. Beast Boy sprang from the top of a ruined catwalk toward her. He performed a flip in mid-air while transforming into an ankylosaurus, bringing his club tail down with all his might.

A number of things happened in the following handful of seconds. First, the mirror flared brilliantly as it transmitter the spell from the Puppet King's controller. A ball of gray spirit emerged from Aionor-in-Raven's-body and a blue one did the same from Raven-in-Aionor's-body. The pair leapt toward their own proper vessels, clashing briefly in air before sinking into their respective chests.

Aionor had just in time to grin in triumph before the shadow of a prehistoric sledgehammer fell over her. Raven didn't even have that long, Aionor had let go of the pile of detritus hanging over her head the moment she contacted the Puppet King.

Two crushing weights fell as one.

Beast Boy's tail cracked the floor where it landed and shook the room, but all he managed to hit were stray static arcs and sparkers left in the wake of Aionor's teleportation. He grunted, uncomfortable at the position her landed in and shifted back to human.

“Hey Rae, sorry she... Raven!” He exclaimed when he was the pile of metal and concrete sitting where she'd once stood.

Changing into an elephant, he lumbered over and muscled the topmost layers away before becoming a Sasquatch to do the more precise digging. Finally, his efforts yielded a head of purple hair, followed by a blue cloak.

Returning the human form, he brushed the last of it off of her and gently extricated her from the hole he'd dug in the wreckage. “Come on, Rae, please be okay?” Forgetting all search in rescue protocol Robin had spent years pounding into him, he pulled her close into a hug. “Please?”

Raven came back to herself in time for this. Was it because she'd been deprived of her empathy so long that his affection felt this intense? There was a great deal of affection between all of the Titans, and at the moment, she was expecting some pretty raw emotions, considering it probably did look like she was on death's door a moment ago, but this was a bit odd.

Also odd was that she was letting him hug her. That was only allowed in the strictest of emotional emergencies. “What are you doing?” She asked, even more hoarse than normal.

Beast Boy was suddenly reminded that he was over a pretty explicit line they had drawn. Raven was not big on physical contact, so as a general rule, unless one of them asked for a hug, hugs were verboten. She had actually taught him the word 'verboten' expressly for this reason. He leapt away from her as if she'd just caught fire, mostly because some little part of his brain feared that he would catch fire if he didn't.

“Heh. Sorry, Raven. Just got kind of freaked there a moment. You okay?” He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

She stared at him for a moment. What was that just then? The spike of panic was a given, and she took that as a proper sort of respect, but the disappointment and the hint of self loathing were new. “Fine.” She droned. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, besides bummed Aionor got away.”

Beast Boy's strangeness was washed away by a tide of icy dread. “We have to report to the others. Aionor stole the book with Malchior inside.”

“What?!” Beast Boy exclaimed. “I mean... like how? That thing was locked up tight back at the tower and we've had an eye on her this whole time!”

Raven sighed, shaking her head. “No, that was me.”

“Huh?”

“Which reminded me...” She slapped him upside the head. It wasn't enough to hurt him, but it did pitch his head forward sharply. He gave her a reproachful look, to which she simply folded her arms. “That was for reacting intelligently the one time I was counting on you being an idiot.”

“Again: huh?”

She took a deep breath. “I was Aionor back there. And Aionor was me. I'm suspecting that she used the Puppet King's powers to make the switch. When you were fighting 'Aionor' and she started doing this--” She gestured the same way she had earlier. “--I was hoping you would guess I was playing charades or something.”

Upon seeing the motions she went through, identical to the ones 'Aionor' had used, every thought in Beast Boy's head came to a screaming halt. He'd actually thought that first, but hadn't wanted to look stupid in front of Raven... Oh no.

“Um, Raven? How long were you two switched?” Please say and hour. Please say ten minutes. Please, against all probability and every fiber of your being, just be joking!

“I'm not sure how long I was out.” She admitted. “When did we come here to investigate the power being back on?”

Oh no. Alarm bells were going off in Beast Boy's head. He'd kissed her, and jumped in her freaking lap while her body was hijacked and he'd never even noticed the difference. He was like the worse friend ever and when Raven found out, she was going to send her wherever the hell she sent her father. 'Hell' being the operative word. And she would find out too, because she was an empath and she'd was going to notice how massively he was panicking right now.

Luckily for him, one does not become close friends with an empath without learning a few tricks. Otherwise, pranks, surprise presents, and all sorts of other things lost their pizazz. One of these tricks was emotional chaff; a cocktail of thoughts he could put into his own head, guaranteed to illicit a bunch of conflicting emotions so grating that Raven had no choice but to figuratively close her 'third eye'.

He conjured them to kind in his moment of great need; Slade's parting shot at him after Terra's betrayal, Terra telling him she hopped her wasn't expecting a goodbye kiss, getting tased by Soto's collar, having his mind go blank thanks to Mad Mod's hypno-screens, the rush of leading the remnant Titans against the Brotherhood... There were others, mostly earlier ones that he only when Raven was determined to stick it through and figure out what was really on his mind. He didn't use them this time, they were too painful to pull out any old time.

When he looked up, she was giving him an odd look, but he pretended not to notice. “Let's call the others and figure out what to do now. If she's got that dragon book dealie, we might be in a lot of trouble.”

End of Act I


	12. Raven's Recollections

Raven watched keenly as Beast Boy climbed out of the hole he'd dug in the pile of junk Aionor had dropped on her.

What was going on with him? The hug had come out of nowhere and was totally unwarranted. They were superheroes, after all. They got smashed, crushed, flung, blasted and blown up at least twice a week. Not only that, but anyone on the team knew that she wasn't exactly a waif when it came to absorbing damage. She wasn't as tough as Star, or armored as Cyborg, but she was a half demon and could endure things neither Robin nor Beast Boy could face unscathed.

What Aionor dropped on her wasn’t even a full ton; it was nothing to concern him enough to break their agreed upon taboo.

And immediately after that, he had his panic attack followed by trying to raise his version of psychic static. It didn't do him any good doing that after she already sensed the feeling he was trying to mask, and yet, it puzzled her. Before his little static trick was a sign that he was trying to mask mischief or scheming; never before had he used it to cover something serious... that she knew of.

A frown creased her normally smooth features as she levitated up after him. For a very long time, the two of them replied on each other for the serious stuff; ever since Terra's first betrayal. It hadn't been her choice then; going and sitting with him as he moped about Terra's former room in dog form of all things, had been a favor to Cyborg. The mechanical Titan was needed to sure up the tower's busted defenses and couldn't be spared to comfort his best friend himself.

The second hadn't been his choice. After Malchior... the thought was a chill reminder that someone else had the book now. Someone who knew exactly what the dragon was and clearly had a plan for him. One thing at a time though and this issue was right in front of her. Beast Boy had just, well, been there when she needed to know someone gave a damn about her. That was the first hug, and she felt how much it freaked him out.

But after Cyborg's interrupting and a surprisingly cathartic round of stankball, Beast Boy came to her room again and actually offered another hug if she needed it. Sweet, but when not on the verge of emotional destruction, Raven didn't do hugs. He told her that if she ever did need one, just ask.

Hugs didn't come up much after that, but support did and the whole mess was a turning point for them. They weren't just teammates, but friends. Maybe best friends. 

The coda came more than a year later and it was again Terra related. Beast Boy never explained it fully, but one night he woke her up and asked if the whole asking for a hug thing only went one way.

Put it all together and that made his actions disturbing to her. Whatever happened, he would tell her. Not only tell her, but tell her first. Unless... She hit upon an answer as she touched down on the concrete floor a few steps behind him.

Maybe she couldn't see the forest for the trees. A villain had just spent the day in her skin; in the tower. To pretend to be her without being instantly found out meant Aionor had done research. And public record seemed intent on painting a very unflattering picture of her relationship with Beast Boy.

What to them was just (usually) good-natured arguments, poking and prodding the media seemed to thing was barely restrained hatred. Raven assumed it was because they were a guy and a girl; after all, Beast Boy and Cyborg got into screaming fights over food all the time in public, sometimes devolving into full on play-fighting and no one batted an eye. But if Raven slapped him upside the head or insulted his intelligence, she was seen as queen bitch of the universe.

And if Aionor thought that was how Raven was supposed to act and acted accordingly... She winced to think what the last twenty-four hours had been like for Beast Boy. That had to be mended quick.

Gliding up to match speed with him, she opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the tone from their communicators. Beast Boy opened his first, refusing to look at Raven as he angled the screen so she could see too.

Robin's image appeared on screen. “Beast Boy, did you and Raven catch Aionor?”

A slight tremor ran through Beast Boy's body, but once he started talking, he couldn't stop himself. “Dude. We got a serious problem. Raven's saying that she was Aionor, and Aionor was her!”

“Come again?”

Raven spared both of them and took the comm. “What he means is, Aionor switched bodies with me. Last night during the battle. The 'me' that's been in the tower since then has been an imposter.”

The Boy Wonder gave her a skeptical look. It wasn't like body switching hadn't come up before, but he felt confident that he would have noticed. “Right... but what proof do I have that you didn't just make the switch?”

Other people might have accused her of joking, provided they didn't know her. But good old paranoid Robin immediately assumed the worst. She didn't have time for this and glared to make that known. “You don't believe me? Well I can say two words that will completely convince you.”

Behind his mask, his eyes narrowed in challenge. “Oh yeah? What?”

“You asked for it: Barbara. Woobie.”

“Who the heck of Barbara Woobie?” Beast Boy asked, his curiosity temporarily breaching his funk.

“No one!” Robin said with hurried panic. He looked around to make sure no one else heard. At the small cost of a minor heart attack, Raven's identity was confirmed. Though the act of linking minds with her saved his life, he rued the day that it also gave her access to things like the stuff bear he'd bought to Jump City purely as a for-get-me-not present and the identity of who it helped him not forget.

“Are we done with the Inquisition now?” Raven asked, receiving a hasty nod. “Good. Because the tower hasn't just been compromised: Aionor stole Malchior.”

“The dragon?”

“Do we know any other Malchiors?”

Robin growled his irritation at her dry attempts at wit. “Alright. That's not good news. Take Beast Boy and head back to the tower. We'll sweep the place for any other surprises she left and compare notes. Robin out.” His image faded to black.

Raven returned the com to Beast Boy, finding that he still wouldn't look at her. Sighing, she decided bribery was the best option and conjured a disc of black energy a few inches above the ground. “Hop on.” She instructed firmly.

He spared her a shocked glance. “But you never let me ride on those...”

“That's because you fidget too much and make it hard to maintain.” She said with a bit of venom in her voice at the memories of Azar knew how many times he disrupted one of those discs while she was carrying civilians to safety, or Cyborg into battle. But she remembered why she was doing this and softened her tone. “But I'm making an exception just this once.”

His ears perked up and his static faltered, replaced by a happy jumble with childlike excitement at the fore.

She took in those emotions and let them sooth the ball of stress that had been building in her stomach. “Plus, it'll give us time to talk on the flight back.” And that sent his emotions into a dead stop as if they had hit a wall. It was enough to jolt her out of her own thoughts.

“Oh. Umm...” The psychic static returned as he avoided eye contact. “I'm feeling kind of hyper tonight, so I'll probably ruin it. So maybe sometime later, okay? Bye!” He shifted into a hummingbird and flitted swiftly out of the building, leaving an utterly stunned empath in his wake, staring after him with a growing frown of concern.

\-----------------  
It took an hour to reconvene at the tower and for Raven to tell her story. Robin filled her in on what little he knew that happened in the tower while she was gone, but as far as he knew it it was pretty mundane. It didn't slip past Raven though that she caught wisps of discomfort from Cyborg and Starfire when he mentioned movie night.

The other thing that didn't slip by her was the fact that Beast Boy hadn't said a word through the entire briefing. Not even to comment on how 'awesome' he thought her escape was, or his own prowess in fighting her as Aionor. Nothing.

She was a person that loved silence, but this made her uneasy. What terrible thing had Aionor done while in her body that would frighten Beast Boy into silence? What exactly was he seeing now when he looked at her that made him avert his eyes. Flashes of her nightmares came unbidden: flickers of dark magic and green bug guts. Beast Boy healed quick and wouldn't want to get he in trouble; Aionor could have done almost anything to him.

Neither Beast Boy's silence, nor Raven's discomfort was noticed by Robin. He'd been trying to loosen up over the years, but things like this drove him hard back into the leader zone; the state of mind where he truly acted the part of the Son of the Bat.

“Alright team, we've have a Class V security breech; a single intruder, unnoticed with an unknown level of access for less than forty-eight hours. Raven, since she was pretending to be you, we have to assume you were the focus of the attack I need you to take stock of everything in your room and once that's done, see what you can find out about her and her creatures that isn't a lie.”

He didn't even wait for her acknowledgment before moving on. “Cyborg, I need full diagnostics and access logs from every system in the tower for the past day. Reset all security codes and encryption. Starfire, you and I are going to review the security tapes for the past day and see what she was up to.”

Normally, Cyborg would interject something about Robin and Starfire once again 'just happening' to be assigned together, but this time, something bigger struck his mind. He turned toward Beast Boy, who was already looking at him with a stricken expression.

The tapes would include ops. Which meant they would show the kiss.

“Um, Dick, maybe I should review the tapes instead.” he blurted out and pointed to his robotic eye. “This thing reads images at five hundred frames per second, it can catch way more than you and Star combined.”

Robin shook his head, looking mildly perturbed at the interruption. “Sorry, Cyborg, but I need you integrated with the tower and generating those reports. We'll do just fine.”

Green eyes had been watching the entire conversation in silence. But unlike Beast Boy's depressed silence, Starfire was just paying very close attention. She knew what she'd seen at dinner earlier that evening, and during the movie after that. Putting that together with Raven's revelation that she and Aionor had been switched told her all she needed to know about the drama being played out in body language.

And in turn, that body language told her that there was something on the videos that would make it worse if it became public knowledge. Though she loved him, she knew that Robin must not be allowed to see that something, as he would feel honor bound to make it public knowledge.

“Robin?” She interrupted him sweetly just as he was about to assign Beast Boy his task. It was ironic; she had not problem using the others' real names (though Raven always was and would remain 'Raven', earth name or no), she much preferred calling Richard Grayson by 'Robin', though she made it sound like a pet name.

If anything could derail his Batman style power trip, it was Starfire. And she did, often and efficiently. “Yeah, Star?”

She played shy. “It is only that... I believe the Malchior was stored in the evidence room, yes?” He nodded. “Then I believe your place is there. No one of us has the great familiarity that you have there. We do know that the Aionor was there, so someone must search there, yes?”

Years on Earth and her syntax was still slightly confusing. It took Robin a moment to parse and concede the point. Sure, it countermanded his executive decision, but it was Starfire after all, and it didn't really matter where they worked as long as they were together.

“Then friend Beast Boy will be watching the video log in your stead, yes?”

He nodded.

“Very well. I shall see you when we have concluded our work.” Before Robin could react, Star flew out the door, pausing only to grab Beast Boy by the scruff of the neck like a cat.

“Waaugh!” He screamed as the door shut behind them.

Robin stood blinking at the space Starfire had been standing in. Had his girlfriend just ditched him? For Beast Boy? “What the heck just happened here?”

Cyborg scratched his head, just as perplexed. “Man, I've got no idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some folks might wonder how Season 4 and specifically 'The End' fits into Raven's recollection of events up there, and it does, but there's a reason she doesn't dwell on it here. All will be revealed later.
> 
> Woobie is from Batman:TAS.


	13. Star's Understanding

In her hurry, Starfire practically threw Beast Boy into one of the chairs in the monitoring station, sending it and him spinning a dozen or so times before she thought to stop it. She finally did so by grabbing the back of the seat bringing it to a dead stop and putting her face to face with a very dizzy changeling.

“Well?” She asked sweetly. The only answer she got was a groan, so she politely cleared her throat. This time, Beast Boy's eyes fluttered open, still virtually spinning all on their own.

“Ugh. Star, what gives?”

“I believe that is, as the humans on television say, 'my line'. What is doing the giving with you, friend Beast Boy?” Her tone was sympathetic and concerned.

He avoided eye contact. “I dunno what you're talking about.”

“Oh.” She straightened up primly, the look of intense worry on her face replaced by one of her broad, friendly smiles. “If this is the case, then we should get to out duty. I shall begin the tape viewing at the time we returned to the tower this morning...”

“Wait, Star you can't!” He leapt from the chair to stop her, but he was still too dizzy and ended up faceplanting in front of her instead. “...Ow.”

Starfire floated above him, looking down and giggling; He'd bought that upon himself really, having taken it upon himself to introduce her to the concept of slapstick and why it was funny. “Is something still not 'giving' with you?” She asked, just as sweetly as before. He needed to introduce her to Rita on more informal terms somehow, his foster mother would love to meet someone who was as good an actress at Star.

“How do you even know?” He looked up from the floor, confused.

“I do not.” She admitted. “But I have applied the methods of detectiving taught to me by Robin to my own observances. I believe that I can make the 'educated guess.”

Beast Boy stared up at her for a time. How come only she got to learn all the ultra-cool, Batman-taught world's greatest detective stuff? The answer was obvious and had nothing to do with Robin's relationship with Starfire and everything with Beast Boy being the last person anyone should trust with Batman's secrets to learning everyone's secrets. But still, he really wanted to learn them.

Finally, he pulled himself into a sitting position, still on the floor. “So... what's your guess?” At the very least, he could delay talking about it.

Star nodded smartly and took a deep breath before reciting It all on one breath. “At dinner and during the movie you and Raven were acting very unlike yourselves, especially with the sharing of food and the affectionate viewing positions. I was most overjoyed to see that both of you had finally seen the same thing I have seen between you quite often in the past year. However, then we discovered that that 'Raven' was, in fact, the evil clorbag Aionor and since then, you have been unhappy and unable to even look at Raven. It is my belief that you do not wish friend Raven to view this in fear of her discovering your true feelings, yes?”

It took a while to process when Starfire just threw things out like that. Beast Boy crawled back up into his seat and lowered his head, ears drooping. “Well you got most of it right, I guess.” He said in a low voice, near tears. “But it's worse. On the tape... I mean last night... Raven—I mean Aionor—er....”

Not wanting to interrupt him, Starfire sank into the adjacent chair and watched him carefully.

Eyes closed tightly, Beast Boy found it harder to close his mind's eye. Over and over again, he was seeing the kiss. It wasn't terribly much of one, but from Raven, given her problems with her emotions and zero socialization prior to coming to the tower, it was huge. And because it was huge, the fact that he ended up kissing her (her body) while someone else was in it seemed like a massive violation.

The fact that the thought of kissing her felt so good, so right, even now just made him feel unclean.

“On the tape.” He finally croaked out. “Aionor kissed me.”

Starfire gasped. Clearly, he wasn't the only one that saw the enormity of what that meant in 'Raven' terms. “That zardnarfing clorbag! Xh'al, I would greatly like the rematch with her now, as I am certain you would as well.” Her eyes glowed dangerously, as if she was ready to blast anything the looked like Aionor in a split second.

But then her expression softened into confusion. “But, friend Garfield...” she only pulled that one out when she was trying to be soothing, “The harm done is Aionor's fault, not your own. Why do you worry so?”

He stared at the floor. “Because it's still me on the tape, Star. And Rae's an empath, she'll know I liked it... and that I like her now too. It'd totally wreck our friendship, and you were there Star, you know how long and hard I worked to be friends with her, how many lumps I got for it? I wouldn't trade 'em for the world, but I don't want them to go to waste either.”

Starfire had no choice to agree with that last part. Things really had been rocky. For the longest time, they thought the other hated them, and even after, Raven was too quick on the draw in using her powers to forcibly silence Beast Boy and BB in turn was slow on the uptake when she wanted to be left alone.

It had evolved into a weird kind of play fighting, not unlike the games Tamaranian children played, so Starfire understood while Robin and Cyborg still routinely mistook such displays for actual violence. The pair in question were no help either; too embarrassed to tell the truth, they just didn't bother half the time and moved to favoring verbal exchanges instead of physical.

The thought of things going back to how they were at the beginning left both of them cold.

Reaching over, she put a hand on his shoulder, coaxing him to look at her. “Friend, Garfield, I shall keep your secret. Especially from Robin. If he discovered, he would certainly be obligated to inform friend Raven.”

Smiling weakly, he covered her hand with his own. “Thanks Star.”

She turned and faced the monitors. “It is what friends are for. Now, we must still review the tape to find what the Aionor did.”

The next twenty minutes was filled with tracking Aionor's movements thought the halls via the camera system in the halls.

Eventually, the quiet was too much for Beast Boy. It was making him think, especially about some of the things Starfire said. “Hey Star? When you said fake-Raven and I was in an 'affectionate viewing position', did you mean the cat thing?”

“Mmhmm.”

“But then why do you—“

Starfire blushed with embarrassment and looked down. “It is most enjoyable having an earth feline on one's lap. And... I was hoping that you did not yet understand the significance.”

That drew a snicker from him, the first since he'd made the discovery about the Aionor's deception. “I kind of only found out tonight.” They shared a quiet laugh about this before Beast Boy recalled something else. “Hey, wait... what do you mean you saw something between us before today?”

\-----------------  
“I know you're in there.” Aionor folded her arms stubbornly and glared at the book's cover as it set atop an oak book stand. “What? Trying to size me up? Getting a lay of the land?”

Malchior was at a loss for words for once. The usual song and dance wouldn't work to manipulate this girl; she already knew who and what he was. The plan, as ever, remained the same; escape the book. But the tact had to change.

He took a moment to do exactly as she'd unwittingly suggested; extending his senses out into the room. It was fairly typical, but exotic to Malchior, who had spent the last few centuries in wizards' towers and arcane libraries. It was the room of a typical teenaged girl, almost stereotypical with its band posters on the walls, neglected schoolbooks on the desk, and stuffed rabbit on the bed.

“You're neglecting your studies, little girl.” His voice carried a hateful sneer.

“And you might want to amend who you show an attitude to, wyrm.” She shot back. “I do have a lighter in here, you know?”

“And yet I don't believe you'll use it. You went to a great deal of trouble to win this book; you have need of me.” He paused for effect, “Though I wonder why you believe I would help the likes of you, Rorek's Seed.” The sneer in his voice intensified. “Oh yes, I know who you are; the hair, the Mark of Magelon on your armor—“

“The fact that you heard me say as much when I was taunting Raven?” She rolled her eyes and fell back on the bed. Starring up at her ceiling, she continued, “Spare me all this stupid posturing, Malchior. You know what I am, but you don't know anything about me.”

“Correct.” His tone shifted to calm and collected much too quickly to be genuine. “And so I wonder; why did you come and collect me? Surely the line of Nol would be content to leave me in my prison.”

Very slowly, Aionor sat up. “See? You know absolutely nothing.” Standing, she slowly walked a circle around the book. “I do want to release you Malchior. You see, I'm not like Rorek. Yeah, I was supposed to save the world, but that sort of fell through; so I think I'll rule it instead.”

Malchior laughed mockingly. “And you think that I'll help you, why? I am, as you told Raven, a Dark Tyrant Dragon; my species was born to rule.”

Instead of taking offense, Aionor chuckled. “I can't very well rule to world myself, now can I? And even as ambitious as your species is, you don't really want the whole planet. Come on, Malchior: I'm willing to share.”

The great dragon's powerful mind went over the situation. Freedom was a good draw, and the girl was right that he couldn't take the whole world on his own. On the other hand, she was not to be trusted and surely, she didn't trust him in turn. He would have to tread carefully, but the prizes were worth it.

“What would my part of this partnership entail?”

“Nothing you wouldn't have done to escape in the first place. I saw how you taught Raven the ancient secrets so that she could break your prison. I want that. And you sovereign, unbreakable oath not to betray me.”

Sovereign oaths were no mean thing in the realm of magical beings. If Malchior swore such and oath, it would cost him pain and power to break it. Skirting around it, however...

“That cannot be all.” He said, sensing more caveats and loopholes coming on.

“Like I said, nothing you wouldn't do anyway. Once you teach me and once you escape my great-great-etc.-grandfather's prison, I want you to swear that your first act will be to do your best to destroy our old flame.” A cruel smile played on her lips as she came to stand in front of the book.

A throaty chuckle emerged. “Destroy 'dear' Raven? Whatever did she do to arouse such fury?”

Aionor's smile disappeared, leaving her face blank, save for her hard eyes. “Every terrible thing to happen in my life is all her fault.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The view of Beast Boy and Raven's relationship in this chapter are Starfire's and might not reflect reality any better than Beast Boy's earlier. Part of the theme of this story is how the characters see one another, particularly Raven and Beast Boy vs how we the fans interpreted things we saw from the outside.
> 
> I'm interested in people's thoughts of my interpretation of Starfire. My idea is that she's not as silly as she's treated by others, and she's more than happy to let people assume because being underestimated has it's advantages. Apropos for a warrior princess.


	14. Cyborg's Loyalty

In three weeks, Raven finished six books. And she was not happy about this.

Usually, she was lucky to finish one book a week if that. There were just too many distractions in the tower; video game tournaments, trips to the park, or out to eat, marathon joke telling sessions, and of course, fighting villains.

There had been villains; mostly petty crooks, but Mumbo and Johnny Rancid had shown up in that span, only to be swiftly beaten down. The rest, however...

Robin and Cyborg still played against each other, but they weren't terribly loud (relatively speaking) and neither of them bugged her to see the awesome move they were about to utterly fail at pulling off. Starfire had put herself in charge of inviting Raven to team outings, but she wasn't persistently annoying enough to draw the dark girl out of her books. And the joke telling sessions were gone all together.

The search for Aionor was still on, but didn't seem likely to pan out anytime soon. Beast Boy and Starfire reported that Aionor had used the ops computer to pull up the floor plan and look up the file on Malchior, then hacked the evidence room door code for access. She hadn't tried to sabotage anything. So life started to return to normal in the tower.

Or at least a kind of normal. Raven still had no idea what Aionor had done, but it must have been pretty terrible. Whenever she was in proximity to Beast Boy, he started up the static and found an excuse to leave. When she tried to confront him, there was always a terribly convenient interruption. And when, at her wits ends, she tried to probe past his mental defenses, the static got worse—worse as in the emotions turned to bitter pain, guilt and regret so deep that she didn't have the heart to try again.

Things had changed drastically. And she hated it.

Hated it so much that one night, almost three weeks to the day since her disappearance, she took drastic action.

\-------  
Sporting a blue night cap with a fuzzy white ball on the end and blue fuzzy bunny slippers (a gift from Starfire), Cyborg yawned widely as he entered the main room and made a beeline for the kitchen. Along the way, he checked the digital readout on his arm.

“Well alright! Twelve-o-one in the AM.” He rubbed his hand together in anticipation. “That mean's it's time for Cy's patented Three Meat, Four Cheese Midnight Snack-wich. Yeah baby!” He practically jogged to the fridge and began tossing ingredients over his shoulder an onto the counter behind him.

“Let's see here. Got some sharp cheddar, provolone, Gouda—ooo!--mozzarella; gotta have that. Crispy romaine lettuce, some cracked black pepper... What the heck is this doing in the fridge? Eh, whatever.” With a nervous glance around, he pulled out a jar of pickled asparagus. That stuff was so groady looking that even Starfire wouldn't touch it.

This made it the perfect hiding place. He tapped the jar and the hologram dissipated, revealing a small, yellow jar, which he pulled out and held aloft triumphantly. “That's what I'm talkin' about. Mrs. Foster's Premium Honey Dijon Extra Tangy Mustard—just twelve dollars a jar, and worth every penny.”

He had to drive all the way to San Diego to buy it from the boutique that carried it, so he felt more than justified hiding it from the drinking straws and tofu that menaced every jar of mustard in Titan's tower.

“Now for something to put it on.” He pulled out a bag of high quality potato rolls before going for the meat. “We've got roast beef, turkey and... wait, hold up. Where's...”

“Looking for this?”

He knew that dark voice. It came with raised hoods, red eyes and tentacle. Very slowly and carefully, he turned toward it.

Raven wasn't in her demonic aspect. In fact, she was stone faced. So much so that Cyborg wondered at that moment how they had ever called her normal expression emotionless. This was so far beyond emotion that it pulled at other people's emotions; namely fear. It broke through emotionless, blasted straight on past and went so far that it came back out on the other side as a mix of anger, hurt and frustration that could only be felt, not seen.

Just as scary was the sight of his precious ham; an old Virginia smoke cured ham that he'd had flown in from the east coast. It was floating above her hand, encased in scintillating black energy.

“Hey, Rae.” He said, lamely trying to contain mounting terror. “How're you doing?”

“Poorly. As you can no doubt see.”

Cyborg frowned. If there was one thing he cared about even more the succulent meat was his friends. “Alright, Rae, talk to me. What's wrong?”

She didn't move or change expression. “I propose a trade. Your midnight snack for information.” Behind her, one of the windows opened, letting in the cool breeze off the bay. “And if you don't agree, this ham is getting another brine soak.”

“Come on, Rae, you don't need to threaten a defenseless ham for that. We're friends; just ask me and I'll tell ya. What's this about?”

Without looking at it, she lowered the ham to the counter. “It's about Beast Boy.”

“Oh...” Cyborg looked guilty.

“He's been avoiding me. Something happened the day Aionor was in my body and now he won't even look me in the eye. And every time I try and corner him on it, you or Starfire do something to distract me long enough for him to escape. I want to know what it is the two of you are helping him hide.”

“Star? I didn't know he told her anything.” In retrospect, he realized that she had to know to help cover up the security tape.

“It doesn't matter who knows what. Tell me what happened.”

Cyborg bought his hand to his mouth as he thought. “Raven... This really isn't my secret to tell.”

Her facade came down enough for her to give him a baleful glare and snatch up the ham in her powers.

He shook his head. “Go ahead and do it, Rae. The stuff he told me, he told me in confidence and no amount of ham is work turning on BB for. He's me best friend.”

The glare disappeared, replaced by a haunting sadness. The ham thunked down on the counter. “He used to be mine too.” A moment later, Raven's soul-self raced along the marble surface and neatly snapped it in half. If she noticed, she didn't make any indication, instead folding her arms on the broken counter top and putting her head down in them.

Needless to say, Cyborg was stunned. “Raven...” He put his hand on her shoulder. “I didn't know. I mean, I know ya'll definitely didn't hate each other, no matter what Rob or Star think. Sure, you smack him around a little, but no worse than me and we're bros.”

Raven wasn't so sure about that anymore. It was rare that her powers ever last out on their own at a person, but nine times out of nine and a half, that person was Beast Boy. She knew it wasn't random, that it was her demonic side, part of her subconscious. It was a miracle that it seemed to content itself with merely bruising him, and thankfully, it was, again, rare. The one time it had lashed out at Cyborg, he'd needed to completely rebuild his leg, so Beast Boy got off lucky. Often.

Over the past year, she'd worked extra hard on keeping that part of her reigned in, and now it was 'just' on the same level as... everything else she did to him. Now she wasn't looking at it as play fighting anymore, no matter how many tiger cub metaphors Beast Boy applied to it. Whatever Aionor had done pushed it over the top and now, she was sure, he was seeing it all in a new light, just as she was. No matter how she'd meant it, that didn't change anything.

“Um, Raven?”

She'd forgotten herself in her misery and self loathing.

“Damn it, BB.” Cyborg muttered. “Look, Raven, whatever you're thinking, I'm going to bet it's not it. Mostly because I don't think you've guess this in a million years. B is still your friend, he just feels, I don't know, uncomfortable dealing with what happened right now.”

“Uncomfortable with me.” She said in perfect monotone. No, she was not crying into her folded arms. Raven did not cry. It was one of those things she Did Not Do. Like hug, Or quietly pray to be interrupted by a dumb joke, or offers of horrid soybean creations.

“If that's what I meant, I would've said that.” Cyborg said firmly, taking a page out of her playbook. When that didn't work, he sighed. “Alright, look: I can't tell you what's wrong. But this is for his own good and yours too; I'll tell you what's not wrong. He's not mad at you, creeped out by you, or any other bad thing toward you. He still cares about you, okay? So get that thought outta your head right now.”

She looked up at him, eyes red, but not in the sense that they were glowing. “That doesn't make any sense.”

“This was all kicked off when the descendant of a dude in one of your fantasy books stole your body and broke into our superhero HQ to steal the magical prison holding your fake ex who is a four-story tall, eighty ton dragon. I'd be more worried if it started making sense, actually.”

Her expression didn't change.

“Bad time?”

She nodded.

“Right. Tell ya what, Rae. This whole stupid thing is because he thought it would keep you from getting hurt, which I'm going to venture is a spectacular failure. Right now, Star's asleep, and I'm not going to interfere anymore. I'll bet money that BB's awake; he's been playing games in his room for the past couple weeks. Go on and talk to him.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea?”

“So sure I'll seal his window so there's no escape.” He gestured to the ops console. “Trust me, you both need to bury this so everyone can have some peace.”

Taking a deep breath the center herself, she stood and straightened her cloak. “Thank you, Cyborg. Enjoy your snack.”

“No problem Rae. For what it matters, I'm sorry I kept this from you.”

He didn't get a reply as she vanished through the automatic doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another perspective on Beast Boy and Raven's relationship, this time, a whole different one from the same person in a new circumstance. What's real, what's imagined? How much depends on the 'now' instead of the facts? A better question: does it matter if that's what they think?
> 
> This chapter was mood whiplash city, I know, but the series did that a lot. Aftershock Part 1 and The End Part 1 come to mind. Joke, joke, joke WHAM. I did promise Original Flavor despite the shipping, yes?


	15. Beast Boy's Guilt

Raven wasn't the only one who meditated. True enough that only Starfire tried to duplicate Raven's literal method of meditation, but they all had activities they used to clear their minds, find their center, and put things into perspective. Starfire cooked, Cyborg tinkered, and Robin... Robin was Dick Grayson's form of meditation. And Beast Boy played videogames.

Unlike Robin and Cyborg, who played recreationally, Beast Boy played religiously, at least three hours a day. The 'mindlessness' Raven often cited was exactly what he was normally looking for. He could just let muscle memory take over and zone out, letting his thoughts wander. It usually worked beautifully.

Except his thoughts for the past three weeks always wandered to how terrible a person he was and how awful he felt. It didn't help that Raven was relentless in pursuing the point, insisting that she wanted to know when he knew that she didn't.

He wasn't even concerned with what she'd do to him; he deserved it, whatever it was. What terrified him was what it would do to her. When they first met, Raven was the ultimate introvert. Everything was 'pointless' or 'useless' and nothing could change her mind. Nothing except him. The others took 'no' for an answer, and respected things like boundaries. He had grown up in shifting, strange circumstances, and had only the most vague idea of even how to do those things.

The weird thing was that it worked. After months of being pushed away (usually by telekinesis, often it being more of a throw than a push), he'd won her trust and her friendship and by extension, convinced her to trust and grow closer to the others.

If she discovered that he of all people betrayed her, that would be the end of that. The shell would close up and she might never, ever come out again.

Those were the thoughts that assaulted him every time he zoned out these days, so Beast Boy didn't play his 'mindless' fighting and racing games anymore. They let him think too much. Beast Boy being Beast Boy, he didn't give up on games entirely, he just switched genres.

He was terrible at Real Time Strategy games, but every moment playing them forced him to think about the game and how epically he was losing it. The perfect solution to his problems that didn't involve actually finding a solution to his problems. Of course, that didn't prevent his problems from finding him.

It was past midnight, and he was being soundly housed by a zerg rush. He smelled her the moment she entered his hall. He knew she was coming to try and talk to him again, because her room was on the floor above and she had no other reason to be in his hall.

He quickly typed a goodbye to his opponent and logged out of the game to stop the noise and started thinking his general 'psychic static' thoughts. It wasn't really a good strategy, seeing as how the static would instantly clue her into the fact that he was awake, but he didn't know what else to do.

After an eternity of cringing, the knock came.

“Beast Boy?” Her voice was raspy even for her. Either she was tired, or upset. Probably both.

He held his breath and kept perfectly still. Because that would help.

“I know you're awake in there.” She said firmly. “Open the door. We need to talk.”

Still, he made no move to answer, or even move a muscle. Eventually, she'd give up. She always had before. Maybe in time, she might give up on asking what happened while Aionor had her body. Seconds passed in silence. Her scent lingered, but scents could remain as fresh as if the person was standing there for several minutes. He pricked up his ears to see if he could hear her.

Not a sound. He let out a sigh of relief.

Immediately thereafter, a swirling black portal overshadowed his door and a very unhappy half demon emerged from it, arms folded, hood up, head bowed. Somehow, he could still feel her glare.

“Dude!” He yelped and fell out of his chair. “What if I was naked in here?”

“Everyone knows that both you and Robin still sleep in your uniforms.” She pointed out. Another rule that had been relaxed in the months following Tokyo. The price for sleeping in comfort was promising to do quick change drills, which was fairly pointless for someone who could phase in and out of clothing at need.

“Still, principle of the thing!” Beast Boy protested before remembering who he was facing. A quiet “Yipe.” escaped his lips as he scuttled back in a crab walk, all the way to his bed. He would have hid under it if it wasn't jam packed with junk.

Raven ignored his outburst and sudden fit of cowardice. She took a deep breath. “Beast Boy...” The plan she'd hastily sketched out had sounded flawless earlier, but now it sounded hokey and completely unbecoming of her. But at the moment, she was strangely okay with sacrificing dignity for peace of mind.

She started again. “Beast Boy, do you remember when Malchior tricked me? How afterward, you told me that anytime I needed a hug, all I had to do was ask? That you'd be there for me?” Looking at him from under her hood, she saw him nod timidly. “Was that a lie?”

The psychic static faltered and through the mental haze came stabs of shock, guilt, and raw hurt at the words. She flinched. True, she knew that would happen when she asked that question, but the strength of them was alarming. Even her demonic side tensed at the feedback.

Beast Boy fixed his gaze on the floor.

Despite the nausea building up in her, Raven pressed on. “Was it?”

“N-no, Rae.” His voice was thin, small and lost. “It's just...”

She spared him for the moment, studying the floor just as he was and clenching her hands into fists nervously. “Good. Then I need one now.”

“Huh?”

“I'm not going to say it again. Were you telling me the truth, or not.” Staring at the ground, she didn't see him get up, but she felt the sick feeling in her echoed in his own emotions.

“I was.” He said and to prove it, he put his arms around her. Every instinct in her told her to get away. Touch was not something she was comfortable with. And yet, she needed this after weeks of isolation. Instead of shying away, she put her arms around him as well. It lasted longer than either of them would admit, and would have gone on longer if Raven hadn't spoken up.

She pulled back from him and fixed him with a glare. “Do you call ignoring me for three weeks 'being there for me'? Hiding things?”

His ears drooped and he looked away. Letting go of her as if she'd suddenly grown thorns. Guilt rolled off him like fog. “Raven, you don't understand. If I told you what happened, it... it would...”

“What?” She said flatly. “Ruin our friendship?”

He nodded.

The stress was too much, her anger broke through. “What friendship?!” A mound of dirty laundry and snack wrappers exploded nearby. “In case you haven't noticed, Gar, we've hardly talked in weeks! The last thing you said to me was 'watch out' when Rancid's robot pterodactyl tried to dive bomb me. That was four days ago.”

She flew backward from him and retreated into her cloak until all he could see of her were vaguely luminescent eyes. “If that's saving our friendship, I don't know what it would look like destroyed.”

In the next instant, she knew she had gone too far. The bombardment of emotions from him made her head pound as they poured out in chaotic swirls before setting into a strong and steady baseline of guilt, pain and above all, hopelessness. It was like nothing she'd ever felt from him before. Not when he was expressing his fears of the Beast, not either of the times he'd lost, or seemingly lost Terra, not even at the end of the world. There was no fear, only dark certainty.

His posture shifted, his head almost even with his shoulders, his ears pressed down at the side of his head. A sign of submission from a whipped dog. It twisted her stomach that she could make that happen. It stoked her Rage that Aionor had precipitated it.

“You really wanna know?” He asked the wall for fear of looking at her.

“I have to know.” She informed him crisply. “It's the only way I can make things right between us. I know that you know she wasn't me, but that didn't make it better, did it?”

“That's the whole problem.” said Beast Boy, balling his hands into fists. “It wasn't you. But it was close enough, you know? And that's why it's so wrong. Rae, you've gotta believe me; I am so sorry. I should've known, but you know me, I'm... kinda dumb sometimes and... and I don't know why I didn't figure it out!”

She saw her chance, and though it was painful, she took it. “Figure what out. Beast Boy, what happened?”

“I... I mean she... Dude, I can't even bring myself to say it out loud. You're gonna hate me forever.”

“I am not going to hate you forever. Just tell me.” She put up a strong front, folding her arms again.

“Yeah. You totally are.” There were tears in his eyes now. “But... okay, I can't tell you, but I'll show you. Just promise that even though I was a total idiot doesn't mean you can't trust the others, okay?”

Now she was deeply confused. Why should she not trust him for something Aionor did while disguised as her? There was zero chance he would have just happened to do something stupid in that time frame.

Okay, there was a one hundred percent chance that he'd do something stupid in that time frame, but bad enough that she'd never trust him again? It wasn't like they were back to square one where him calling her creepy would be grounds to sever ties, and even terribly stupid pranks like gluing her hands to a game controller weren't that bad all things considered.

“You're not going to believe me when I say I wont' stop trusting you.” She reasoned. “So yes, I'll make that promise. Can you tell me now?”

He shook his head. “I'll show you. Come on.” A month ago, those words would have been followed by him grabbing her arm and dragging her wherever he was going, whether she wanted to go or not. Now, he moved to do the same and remembered himself just before making contact. Shame washed over Raven's empathy and he started a sedate walk to ops with her gliding behind.

Once in ops, he sat down and logged in, the tension only mounting as he entered his password and navigated to the surveillance tapes. He didn't say a word, just entered the time code and stepped aside, looking ashamed.

Raven gave him a pensive look before leaning in to watch and listen as 'Raven' entered ops and started talking the Beast Boy. “'Infernal Machine?' I don't talk like that, do I?” She was the least tech savvy of the team, but then the team consisted of a cyborg, the princess of an advanced alien race, Batman's protege, and a former teammate of the famed Robot Man. She was still competent enough to operate the tower's main systems.

Beast Boy didn't reply, despite that being an excellent set-up at any other time. He just continued to gird himself for what was coming.

On screen, it was clear that Beast Boy was obliviously pushing Aionor's buttons with his ignorance. It was equally obvious to Raven that Aionor was trying to get him to give her his login information. Then she got up, made eye contact, and put her hand on his arm.

“That's new.” Raven muttered. With all her issues with touch, it was strange seeing herself actually putting her hands on someone when it wasn't necessary. She was aware of those issues too, and was slightly envious that Aionor had confidence in an area where she did not.

Starfire wasn't even afraid to put her alien strength into her hug and nuzzles, and casual leaning on others. Cyborg dished out head rubs and back slaps on top of general rough housing. Beast Boy was all over everyone, as if his inner monkey required constant contact with his family, and even stoic Robin managed to be an adherent to the 'firm grip on the shoulder' school of leadership. Raven... hid in her cloak.

She glanced down to find that her power was slowly unscrewing every screw in the chair at the console. Closing her eyes, she forced her demonic side down and with it, her rampant powers. When she opened them again, she was kissing Beast Boy.

On the screen at least. More accurately, Aionor was kissing him on the cheek. Even Raven knew that a peck on the cheek didn't mean much, but it was a hell of a lot to her.

And she knew that Beast Boy knew that. No wonder he reacted the way he did. He probably equated just letting it happen to a terrible violation. Especially judging by the emotion flashing on his face on screen. She didn't need her empathy to read those.

“Oh.” She stammered.

“Thanks.” Raven's voice, said, courtesy of Aionor. It was as if she'd timed it personally to twist the knife and add to the chaos.

“Um... what for?” Asked the Beast Boy on the video.

“For being there for me. Not just tonight.”

Raven stepped back from the screen, exhaling slowly to try and calm herself. Was that real? Was she seeing things? Reading things in where they didn't exist? And if they did, what did it even mean? It only mad it worse that she'd just used those same words for a different purpose back in the room. It must have just made things even worst.

Beast Boy wasn't an empath, bu he could tell she was in distress. “Rae, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to...”

Every window in the main room exploded inward. Years of practice allowed Raven to raise a shield to protect them both. Pieces of bulletproof glass embedded themselves in the floor, walls and furniture was effectively as a spray of armor piercing rounds.

“Dude! I warned you that it would just upset you!” Beast Boy mewled.

“That wasn't me.” Raven dispelled her shield and together, the cautiously approached the shattered windows.

Before they reached it, a huge, wedge shaped head appeared, all horns, glowing, red eyes, and serrated ridges along the jaw and nasal passages. The dread dragon, Malchior.

“Oh dear. It seems I might have knocked too hard.” He said mockingly.


	16. Robins' Leadership

Contrary to popular belief, Beast Boy wasn't stupid, perse. More accurately, he tended to pick up on the exact wrong detail in a given situation and to react without thinking. Animal instincts were a double edged sword. So it wasn't surprising (to Raven at least) when faced with Malchior moment after he was sure he'd caused a tower-destroying emotional outburst in Raven, that his reaction was a bit... outlier.

“Dude.” he said to Malchior, ignoring the dragon's threats and clear malevolent intent. “This is like the second happiest I've been to see a huge dragon that wants to kill me.”

For a split second, the heat of the oncoming battle was forgotten and both Raven and Malchior's trains of thoughts derailed. All they could do was stare at Beast Boy and wonder just what the hell her was talking about.

The changeling virtually withered under their combined gaze. “Heh. Well, see I was in the Doom patrol. Dragons were like some of the more normal things we fought. Ever hear of a dude called Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man?”

“No.” Malchior said rudely. “And I don't care to. I'm going to incinerate you now.” He opened his maw, a deadly flame charging to do just that.

Raven was about to raise a shield when a steel shod boot came down from above and slammed down on Malchior's snout, driving the dragon's jaws closed before causing them to collide with the broken window sill.

Evidently, Robin had leapt form his room, two floor above the pull the maneuver off. He performed a back-flip to get himself clear of Malchior's thrashing jaws and upon landing in a crouch, threw a pair of explosive discs. The projectiles went off against the dragon's face, causing him to rear back out of the window to protect his eyes. There he was met with a hail of starbolts from on high.

“Been waiting for you.” Robin muttered, even though he knew Malchior couldn't hear him.

The automatic doors opened and Cyborg charged in. “Yo! This guy's got the right kinda timing to make me mad. I just laid down on the slab five minutes ago.”

He woke me up too.” Said Robin. “Let's get this over quick. Activate the point defenses.”

Cyborg headed for the ops console as Beast Boy goggled at this development. “We've got point defenses?”

“I wanted to put 'em in after the HIVE broke in.” Cyborg groused as he called up the appropriate interface. “But a spiky haired little somebody had a pride attack at the idea because the bat cave didn't need any.”

“Isn't the bat cave a secret location?” Raven asked. Outside, Malchior was chasing Starfire with a tongue of flame, but was neither fast, nor agile enough to hit her. “As opposed to, say, a giant 'T' on an island visible from every tourist spot in the city?”

“We don't need to have this conversation.” Robin insisted. For a very long time, he had labored under the assumption that the various villainous incursions into the tower were the result of poor training and discipline. The straw that broke the camel's back came from the twin insults of Control Freak of all people breaching tower security and the Brotherhood of Evil managing to infiltrate his ultra-secure Titans network.

His bat-centric myopia was an embarrassment even to him sometimes.

There was a series of rumbling and grinding noises from outside as panels opened to reveal larger versions of Cyborg's sonic cannon. Their sensors instantly registered Malchior as a threat and opened fir; their blue blasts hammering the dragon's thick scales.

Now it was their turn. Robin reached behind his back and grabbed two very special birdarangs. Bringing them together, he activated hidden switches. WayneTech nano-assemblers: a dead end technology because larger colonies of the tiny machines were unable to hold cohesion. In small numbers, they could still make a very sharp blade. Too bad the average consumer wasn't in the marker with instant swords.

Robin pointed the newly formed sword out the window toward Malchior. “Titans, Go!” Without any fear of falling despite his lack of powers, he was first out the window. Seconds later, a pterodactyl caught him about the shoulders and soared directly toward the besieged dragon. Raven followed shortly behind, towing Cyborg on one of her energy discs.

Beast Boy avoided a wildly swinging claw before swooping up and over Malchior's neck and releasing Robin.

The Boy Wonder dropped onto the dragon's back with all his weight behind the point of his sword. As keen as the weapon was, Malchior's scales were hardened by age and natural magic, only allowing the weapon to bite in a few inches. Those few inches, however, were further into the ancient beast's flesh than any weapon had pierced in centuries.

Malchior bellowed in shock and pain, arching his back to try and shake off his attacker, but robin held firm, hauling back and forth on the blade to try and force it in further.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy transformed into a gorilla and dropped down to grasp a wing at the joint where it joined the dragon's body. With savage strength, he hauled hard, trying to pull the wing out of its socket. All the while, he had to keep low and use Malchior's own body to shield him from the combined fire of Raven, Starfire, Cyborg and the point defenses.

Finally, the dread dragon had had enough. Bellowing wordless anger, he threw himself away from the tower and into a furious barrel roll to rid himself of the pair on his back.

Robin's grip failed first and he was thrown clear, leaving his sword planted like a flagpole in the dragon's back. He ignored his predicament to throw a trio of explosive discs at what he hoped was a soft underbelly, As Star caught him about the shoulders, he watched in disappointment as the explosions only forced Malchior to back-wing away from the tower, out of the point defenses' targeting range.

“He remains as tough as I recall.” Starfire commented as she flew Robin back up toward the fray.

“I agree.” He said grimly. “And it didn't work last time. We were getting beaten until Raven used the imprisoning curse.” Knowing more explosives would be ineffective, he whipped out his communicator instead. “Raven, is it possible to use that curse on him without the book?”

Raven didn't answer right away, and a flight of broken glass that raked out from the tower to try and shred Malchior's wings explained why. Only when it proved futile did she deign to take out her communicator and reply.

“Only if you and the others can somehow buy me a month's worth of time to prepare another vessel for the imprisonment. We were lucky last time that he didn't think to destroy the book upon his escape.” She was speaking in dull monotone, but through the bond they shared, Robin could sense the intense stress she was under. He couldn't tell, however, that Malchior had only compounded a mountain of stress she'd had to start.

Above Robin and Starfire, Cyborg countered a blast of dragon-breath with his sonic cannon. “So what do we do then?”

“Do?” It was Malchior that replied, dodging another sonic blast to close with the mechanical hero. “Well in your case, I suppose, the answer is 'fall'.” He slashed mercilessly with a car sized paw. Cyborg danced back in the limited space he had, but he wasn't the target.

Malchior's spell enhanced claws shattered the disc, causing Cyborg to plummet. The backlash from her soul-self being damaged cause pain to explode in Raven's head. She screamed and flew backward uncontrollably, She hit a window and it fractured into a spiderweb pattern at the impact.

She managed to stay in the air, but she couldn't react in time to save Cyborg.

A green humming bird zipped past Malchior and became a pterodactyl just as it came close to Cyborg. They were too low for Beast Boy to gain enough lift the counter the fall, but her turned it into a descending glide along the rocky shoreline.

Cyborg managed to get his feet under him and slide to a safe stop.

“Dude!” Beast Boy reverted to human form beside his friend. “This isn't going well.”

“Tell me about it.” Cyborg glowered up at the battle. Raven had recovered and was striking out at Malchior with every piece of furniture she could lay her powers on, while Starfire was carrying Robin in one arm so as to lay down suppressing fire against Malchior's fire breath.

“You know, if I could get on good shot down his gullet when he's not shooting fire, maybe...” His mind drew a diagram similar to what happened when a certain farm boy sent a proton torpedo down the exhaust vent of the Death Star. “B, can you get me close?”

“Negative.” Robin's voice came from the open comm built into Cyborg's arm. “None of our conventional tactics are going to work on him. We need something unconventional. How do you feel about showing Malchior the 'Welcome Wagon', Cy?”

Above them, Malchior was alternately breathing flames and trying to snatch one of their teammates out of the air with his teeth.

“I feel real good about it, actually.” said Cyborg.

“Good. Get it set up as fast as you can. Robin out.”

Beast Boy raised a mossy brow. “'Welcome Wagon'? What's the 'Welcome Wagon'?”

Cyborg smirked and started toward the front door. “Remember when Slade bought all those fire demons to take Rae? Remember that big-ass concussion-pulse cannon I broke out?”

“...yeah?”

“The Welcome Wagon is what it became after a few upgrades.”

“Dude, I am so in on that.” the changeling scampered after him. “How can I help?”

“Buy time to let me bring the whole system online.” Cyborg told him. “After that, I need you to get Malchior out in front of the tower. The 'wagon is a big gun, but it's not so easy to aim.”

Beast Boy looked up at the behemoth that was going toe to toe with some of the most powerful people he knew and not getting a scratch. “How am I gonna do that? I can't exactly push him.”

Cyborg chuckled. “Man, you're the one that plays games constantly. Ever hear of pulling aggro?”

“That's a WoW term, right? That game has way too much reading.”

Sighing, Cyborg shook his head. “Just annoy the heck out of him so he'll chase you.”

Beast Boy grinned wide. “I can do that. Rae used to say that was my real super power.” He turned and transformed into a loon. A shrill scream tore out of him as he took flight. Now, he had a job to do and an enemy in front of him. For a while, at least, he could forget his social crisis with Raven.


	17. Pulling Aggro

Out of things to throw at Malchior, Raven fell back to sending arcs of pure energy at him, supplementing the erratic starbolts and explosive discs Starfire and Robin were hurling.

They were at a disadvantage: with Malchior hovering over fifty yards from the tower, the battleground was open air. It robbed Raven of objects to hurl with her telekinesis and forced Starfire to carry Robin for the duration, depending on her eye beams for offense. And Malchior seemed well warded against small scale energy attacks.

Ever the manipulator, Malchior picked up on this. “Oh my; are you getting frustrated, Raven?” It was plain to see that she was, and the taunt pushed her further. He next volley of dark energy faltered as she fought down her inner rage. Malchior's toothsome maw sneered. “I do wish I could say you're beautiful when you're angry, but let's face it: you are never beautiful.”

Raven's teeth ground. She knew he was trying to distract her, but all she heard was that voice. The same voice that was the first and only one to ever call her beautiful. Old wounds reopened and now it wasn't just rage she was fighting, but sorrow and hurt she thought long buried.

One of the point defense cannons became overshadowed by her soul-self and before she knew it, she ripped it from its moorings and flung it at the dragon's jeering face. A blast of dragon fire obliterated it before it got close.

“Raven!” Robin bellowed a warning, but it was too late. Her rash act had opened up a narrow corridor in the tower's defenses, enough that Malchior could surge forward to engage her physically: a fight she would lose. He looked up at Starfire. “Aim me at his head. We need to slow him down!”

Before Starfire could carry out his directive though, what sounded like a woman's scream tore through the air. All eyes turned to find a green loon fluttering upward toward the battle.

Starfire blinked in confusion. “Please, the crested birds of this planet are known to be fierce warriors of the sky, yes?”

“No, actually the only thing most people think when they hear loon is the expression 'crazy as a loon'. And attacking a dragon as one qualifies.”

Malchior had also been put off by the scream and comical sight of the approaching waterfowl. “Now that's just plain insulting. At least come at me as an eagle.” He fired a gout of fire breath, intending to casually swat Beast Boy out of the air.

But the loon quickly transformed into a highly maneuverable (green) brown bat and flew loops around the column of killing fire, even speeding up thanks to the thermal it created. It flew right past Malchior's flaming jaws and came in for a landing, hanging from the great beast's eyelid.

The fight all but came to a screeching halt from the bizarre scenario alone.

“And just what the devil did that accomplish?” Malchior squinted at the fuzzy mammal less than a few inches from his eye. Except it wasn't a bat anymore, it was a (green) red-headed woodpecker. In his head, Beast Boy heard Woody Woodpecker's signature laugh. It was really too bad real woodpeckers couldn't do that. What they could do was jackhammer their beaks into objects (trees, posts, dragon eyes) many, many times a second.

Malchior bellowed in pain and slapped a claw over his injured eye in hopes of crushing the pest before it could do any lasting damage. Unfortunately for him, Beast Boy became a fly and flew free of the claw. He reverted to human form and landed on the dragon's muzzle.

“Eyes on me, dude!” He shouted, dropping onto all fours before shifting into a skunk.

“You wouldn't dare.” Malchior was forced to cross his eyes to keep track of the tiny creature, which was aiming it's hindquarters firmly at on huge nostril. He apparently didn't know Beast Boy well. The green teen let rip with a thick stream of skunk musk, directly into Malchior's nose. Both of the dragon's fore-claws came up the crush him, but he leapt off the end of his nose and shifted into a peregrine falcon for maximum dive speed.

Coughing and sputtering, Malchior oriented on his retreating prey and threw himself into a dive of his own. “I'll roast you alive, boy!” They plummeted five stores before Beast Boy pulled up scant feet from the ground and streaked out over the bay. Being substantially bulkier, Malchior pulled up late, scraping his belly painfully along the ground, which only renewed the stream of obscenity and recriminations her hurled after the changeling.

Above it all, Robin, Starfire and Raven looked on in shock.

“He really is insane.” Robin muttered. “We have to get Malchior's attention back on us before he gets killed.”

“Hold on there, Rob.” Cyborg's voice came in over the coms. “This was my idea. I told B I needed him to get old scale-tail there within the arc of fire for the Welcome Wagon.”

Raven glared down at the corner of the building that was hiding Cyborg from view. “And if Malchior catches him?”

“He won't.” Cyborg assured her. “If B doesn't wanna be caught, it's almost impossible. I should know from all the times he'd steal my bacon and try ta keep it from me.”

Below, Malchior belched fire once more, only for Beast Boy to shift into a flying fish and slip beneath the waves to safety. Raven watched as the dragon began sweeping the water in hopes of boiling the elusive Titan alive.

“Malchior doesn't have to catch him.” Her voice was grave. “He has fire breath to strike from range, and if he has time to prepare it, spells as well. He is the one that taught me the spell to forcibly morph Beast Boy, remember?”

“You have a point.” Robin said. “But so does Cyborg. That cannon might be the only way we can defeat Malchior.”

Raven rounded on him, her errant emotions crushing another of the defensive turrets into a heap of ruined metal. “So what? You're just going to risk his life on the off chance that he can keep out of Malchior's reach long enough for Cyborg to shoot him?”

“We put our lives on the line every day.” Robin said with firm calm that was normally Raven's MO. “But I do have faith in his abilities. And we aren't abandoning him. We regroup. Raven, go link up with Beast Boy and counter any threat Malchior throws at him that his morphs can't counter. Star, you and I are going to go help Cy get the cannon online faster.”

They glanced back at the water. Malchior was hovering low. No longer was he blasting flame blindly; he was hunting for any sign of Beast Boy's survival or demise.

He got it when a green orca burst from the water behind him and chomped down on his tail before diving again, dragging Malchior down behind him. The sea exploded into a spray of foam as the dragon, unused to swimming, thrashed and struggled. The strength of a panicking dragon was more than a match for a killer whale's and after the initial frenzy, Beast Boy was launched clear out of the water, crashing down into the shallows.

Laboring into the sky, Malchior threw himself at the beached whale with feral tenacity. But as he closed, Beast Boy became an ankylosaurus. His powerful club tail slammed the dragon in the jaw driving him aground on the beach.

Keeping the dinosaur theme, Beast Boy became a triceratops and lumbered out of the surf to take up a defensive stance with the boardwalk at his back. His massive frilled head lowered to bring horns to bear, daring Malchior to come for hm.

“What is he doing?” Raven asked. The three Titans hadn't moved on their plan, too wrapped up in watching the fight to react.

“Aw no.” Cyborg sounded concerned. “He thinks he's got him in the arc of fire. Looks like he plans to hold him there.”

“What do you mean 'thinks'?” Raven's voice had a dangerous edge to it.

“He's off by about sixty yards. I can't get a lock where they are now. And he can't answer his co in trike form for me to tell him to correct.”

Across the bay, Malchior had recovered with the resilience of his breed and was advancing on the changeling with even more malevolence burning in his eyes.

Robin grit his teeth. “Titans, we need to...” He broke of his speech as he realized he was talking only to Starfire. Raven was already gone.

TT^TT^TT

Beast Boy dug his heavy feet into the sand and readied himself for the nightmare monster coming for him. His only hope was that he'd enraged Malchior enough that the dragon would want to kill him physically instead of with a fire blast. He could at least hold his own in a close fight. Of course, it would be nice if Cyborg shot his giant anti-dragon gun and saved him from fighting at all.

Any time now, Cy. He thought nervously. Malchior was moving with careful tread across the beach, looking very much like a huge, scaly tiger moving in for the kill. Right about now would be real good. Big Hero moment, buddy... No need to wait for more drama?

Malchior pounced.

Beast Boy lowered his horns to intercept.

This didn't look like it was going to end well.

Until the beach came to life.


	18. Complications and the Choice

Disclaimer: This is a fan work created at no profit and for entertainment purposes only. The author acknowledges that Teen Titans and related characters are property of Warner Entertainment.

Teen Titans – What Grows From Deception  
Chapter 18 – Complications and The Choice

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.”

Beast Boy couldn't see her, but Raven's voice seemed to come from everywhere as her soul-self overshadowed a vast expanse of sand in front of him and sent it toward Malchior with force enough to sandblast a normal creature's flesh from its bones.

The dread dragon defended himself as best he could, breathing flames into the onrushing sandstorm and causing gobbets of molten glass to fly in all directions, but there was so much coming from so many directions. In no time, he was entombed.

Taking a moment to blink in confusion, Beast Boy resumed human form. “Dude, that was awesome!”

His elation didn't last long. Raven's soul-self, in the form of a huge bird of prey, emerged from the ground in front of him and coalesced int an incensed empath. “Just what did you think you were doing?”

“Oh. Well Cyborg said...”

“Last I checked, we discuss SUICIDAL ACTIONS with the team.”

“There wasn't time. We needed Malchior in front of the Welcome Wagon and you know how annoying I can be – it was the perfect job for me. Um... why didn't Cyborg fire anyway?”

Raven's ire was dulled somewhat if only for the fact that he was oblivious to just how close she was the skipping him across the bay like he did with rocks back on the beach around the tower. “Because you're still not in the line of fire. We have to get him over there. And I do mean 'we'. You know you can't take him alone, not after how badly it went for all of us last time.”

But again, Beast Boy's attention was elsewhere. This time it was on the huge dragon digging himself up out of Raven's mound of sand. “Yeah... um, hold that thought.” Over her protests, he shifted once more into a Triceratops and charged while Malchior was still partially stuck in the sand.

Malchior still had his front legs though and caught Beast Boy by the horns, lifting him as cleanly and easily as a man hefting a piece of firewood. “I would say 'don't make me laugh.' But honestly, I can't imagine a situation in which you've ever made anyone laugh.” With that last barb, he threw Beast Boy at Raven. 

Over the years, experience did manage to teach the changeling a number of important lessons. One of those was that if a villain was capable of throwing one of his larger forms, they would and they would aim directly at his teammates (Almost unerringly either Raven or Cyborg). And after many years of pain and recriminations n the aftermath, he'd finally trained himself to reflexively take a smaller form in those situations.

He transformed into a sugar glider and screwed his eyes closed, hoping for the best, which in this situation means scraping his fuzzy little belly along the sand. Instead, he got better than the best. He impacted on something soft and clung to it like a lifeline.

While there, he contemplated what it could be that was this soft. Did they still use inflatable life preservers on beaches? No, that couldn't be it. This was too warm and it... had... a...

He cracked on eye and looked up into violet eyed rage.

A pulse. It—ahem--they had a pulse and it had the same rhythm as that vein in Raven's forehead.

“You have on second to get off me.” She growled to a background of rocks exploding underfoot as her emotions boiled.

“Eep.” He let go and dropped to the ground, reverting to human as soon as his back touched Terra-firma. “I totally did not do that on purpose!”

“You are going to pay for that.” She informed him hotly. “And what did I just get done saying about going it alone against him?”

Beast Boy followed her gaze to find Malchior extracting himself fully from the sand. They were out of time and out of options. He might not have demonstrated it, but he'd heard every word she'd said about how they hadn't been able to best Malchior before without the book, which was now not an option. But he did have one card to play. Oh, he would pay dearly for it later, and not just because he would be sore.

Two years ago, after discovering he could also turn into alien creature just by observing him, he'd flown out to sea as an albatross and tried it out. Except he'd instantly had second thoughts, recalling that night after Malchior's first escape. He swore he'd never use it unless it was life or death, just like he'd done with the Beast. And he'd only unleashed the Beast again at the End of the world. A bad decision, as it turned out. Sometimes he wondered how thing would have turned out if he'd broken this taboo instead of one of those he'd made for himself.

Cyborg and Starfire would be confused. Robin would be pissed. And Raven? Well if what she saw on the monitor just before the attack hadn't severed the last bonds of trust between them, this would go through them like a lawnmower doused in herbicide that was also on fire. At least that's how he imagined it in his head.

But what choice did he have now? They were very dead if he didn't.

Flipping onto his stomach, he looked over his shoulder at her. Even before Aionor's drama, he'd known she was beautiful. Somehow knowing that she was five minutes from never speaking to him again somehow made her even more so.

“I'm really sorry, Rae.”

“We'll talk about it later.” She said sharply. Black energy was gathering in her hands as she prepared to meet Malchior in battle.

“Not that. I mean yeah, that to. But... just... I'm sorry.” And then he turned into a gopher and burrowed into the sand.

The powers she was gathering fizzled out as surprise shattered her concentration. Had he just... abandoned her in the middle of battle? That wasn't like him at all. He was one to get into screaming fights with Robin over being sent away from his friends during combat, even when his task was vitally important. So just what in the some seventy hells she was aware of was he doing?

Even Malchior was given pause by the sudden retreat. The boy was chaos incarnate and it didn't pay to let one's guard down when one didn't know what he'd turn into next. But moments ticked by and no gorillas leapt out at him, no birds raked his face, and no camels spat on him.

He dropped to all fours and smiled like a crocodile. “Now that the comic relief portion of the evening is over, I have a proposal, dear Raven.”

Raven grit her teeth as the 'dear'. This creature made all of her emotions almost impossible to contain. The poison lies he told and his act of betrayal still formed a gaping wound inside. But she wasn't going to let him see that.

“I thought you had a new girlfriend these days.” She commented dryly.

“Oh dear me, have we grown a sense of humor? But yes, Aionor. She is powerful and she is ambitious, but I get the constant feeling that at any moment, I will be stabbed in the back. That's why I wish to talk rather than incinerate you.”

“What does you being betrayed have to do with me? Besides the obvious ironic notes.”

“Ah, well you see, regardless of her endgame, she seems to have a vest interest in tormenting you. I believe you've already seen some of her more amusing results.”

“Get to the point.” Raven snapped. “I would much rather fight you than hear your voice.”

Malchior blew smoke rings out of his nose. “Very well. The fact of the matter is, you do remain the Gem of Trigon and are vastly more powerful than she when, shall we say, lethally motivated. That is why I intended to devour you and absorb your powers in the first place. I propose that we--”

An ice cream car shattered on his skull.

“Do you even listen to yourself?” Raven demanded. “You just mentioned you plan to EAT me. Why would I ever want to work with you even if you weren't evil?”

“Pity.” Malchior said, opening his maw to prepare a gout of fire breath.

And for the second time that day, the beach erupted into a geyser of sand, this one centered directly in front of Malchior and propelled by the kinetic force of something very small suddenly becoming something very big.

A horned head slammed into the dragon's shoulder, toppling him off to the side as the thing continued to grow. A pair of emerald wings emerged from the sand storm, followed by four clawed limbs and a sweeping tail.

Raven goggled in uncharacteristic, open shock as the behemoth green dragon loomed over Malchior.

“Who's the comic relief now, dude?” Beast Boy mocked in the same oddly buzzing mental manner of speaking as Malchior used. “Hey cool! I can talk in this form!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there it is. Show of hands: who saw that coming? It's been done, yes, but don't worry, I have a purpose here beyond just drama.


	19. A Brawl of Dragons

Beast Boy's triumph lasted approximately two seconds after that. Malchior rolled with the fall and lashed out with his tail, knocking Beast Boy's front legs out from under him. The changeling-turned-dragon went down without ceremony, his jaw clacking shut painfully when it hit the ground.

“You are, as ever, the comic relief.” Malchior informed him, regaining his feet. “As you every will be. You may be able to take on the shape of a dragon, but you lack the centuries of experience that go with it.” He surged forward, jaws agape, only to take a heavy blow from Beast Boy's wing.

For once, Beast Boy was too focused to quip. He took the time granted by the wing strike to get to his feet and ram his shoulder into the base of Malchior's neck. The force drove Malchior up onto his back legs and Beast Boy continued pushing, driving them both over and into the surf.

As the two behemoths roared and hissed in the sea-foam, Raven was recovering her senses from the shock. She refused to be surprised by that. She refused to be put off by that. If course Beast Boy could take dragon form. He'd proven the extent of his ability on their visit to Tamaran: he could become any animal; terrestrial, extraterrestrial, and, unless he'd met a Sasquatch during his Doom Patrol days, mythological.

It was as natural for him as breathing and nothing to be bothered by. But why had he waited until not to use it? He would have been able to from the moment he got a clear look at Malchior the first time, but time and time again, in hundreds of different situations, he'd chosen not to. One particular explanation tickled the back of her mind, but she stubbornly ignored it. She had to get into that fight.

Her dark energies gathered in her hands and she started to rise. “Azarath, Metrion--”

“Raven!” Robin shouted from off to her right, neatly shattering her concentration and causing her to drop to the ground. She shot a death glare at the Boy Wonder as Starfire flew in close and let him down gently before landing herself. The scene at the shoreline bought the fearless leader of the Titans up short.

“Since when can he do that?” He inquired.

“That's hardly important now.” said Raven, withdrawing into her cloak. “What matters is that we have to help. Even like that, he's not pushing him toward the target zone.

“I begin to wonder if we have anything that can.” Star's voice was quiet as she watched the battle between the giant monsters with awe that only a warrior princess could muster.

Raven breathed deeply to center herself. It was up to her. She knew it would have to be. “Yes. We do. But I need time. Keep Malchior busy and keep him from killing...” She caught herself just in time, “Anyone.”

The psychic connection he shared with Raven told him what she was really thinking, and also that she did indeed have a plan. He nodded only slightly. “Right. Star? Ge to Beast Boy and tell him the new plan: buy Raven time by any means necessary.” Seeing the form he'd taken, he knew he didn't have to add that the gloves were off.

“But what about the Malchior?” Starfire asked, her brilliant green eyes still on the battle. On her planet, wrestling giant monsters was an event on par with the Earth Olympics. Being princess automatically disqualified her from such games, but she watched them all the same. Now, seeing the dragons fighting all out physically, she wanted to join the melee herself.

Her face fell when Robin took off the pack he'd had her take him back inside for before coming to the aid of their friends. She already knew his answer before he spoke. “I'll get his attention. Don't worry.” From the pack, he drew a thick, black device the size and shape of a frisbee. Touching a button, he caused red lights to glow along its circumference.

“What is that?” Raven asked hesitantly. Whatever it was, her empathy was telling her that he had mixed emotions about it; trepidation, guilt and... excitement?”

“A claymore.” He said quickly, hoping that was the end of any questioning.

“Please, that does not look like a sword of any kind. Is it also made of tiny robots?”

“No, Starfire.” Raven's voice was edged with accusation. “It's a landmine.”

Robin glowered at her as Starfire's expression turned dire. He knew all about how dishonorable her people saw the devices, never mind their potential for collateral damage. “Modified.” He explained quickly. “into a throwable explosive discus. Fifty times more powerful than my standard armament.”

“I have my doubts that Batman approves.” Raven noted.

“He doesn't know. All he knows is that Dick Grayson has a fund set up to clean them out of war zones. Besides, he doesn't have to deal with creatures like Cinderblock and Plasmus.”

There was a lot of discussion that could have been had, but at the moment, Malchior was trying to force Beast Boy's head underwater. Discussion would have to wait. “Fine.” Raven said. “Do whatever it takes—this time.”

Robin nodded. “Star, go as soon as I get his attention. Raven, I've only got three of these, so whatever you're doing, I can't promise a lot of time.” He didn't wait for replies before shifting his grip on the explosive disc. He wasn't kidding when he called it an explosive discus.

Tapping three years of track and field at Gotham Academy on top of more than half a decade of training at Batman's side, he performed a text book run-up and flung the bulky device at Malchior. It flew true and exploded with a resonating thump against the dragon's right haunch.

When the smoke cleared, scales had been blackened, cracked, and at the epicenter, blasted clear away. Trickles of blood flowed from dozens of tiny wounds. Instead of roaring in agony, Malchior was rendered silent. For a second, he stood poised atop Beast Boy, one fore-claw trying to drive his head the last few inches underwater while the other twisted his wing to keep him from breaking his hold.

Then his head swiveled around at the end of his long neck to focus in on the spiky haired teen that was the cause of the white-hot agony blooming in his hip. His eyes narrowed dangerously. “No mere, powerless human wounds a dragon an survives.”

Robin swiped the side of his nose with his thumb, mimicking Bruce Lee's signature taunt. “Yeah? So what are you gonna do about it?” He kept his eyes fixed on Malchior even as Star streaked around wide to get to Beast Boy's head an deliver her message.

“Oh, I think you kno just what I intend to do about it.” Malchior opened his maw and began charging his breath weapon again.

Starfire dropped low to the water, coming even with a struggling Beast Boy's dragon-y head. Malchior had forced him up to his jawline in the water. Less than a foot more and he would drown. Her warrior's ardor was raised by such a cruel act, but she had a message to deliver first.

“Friend Beast Boy. We have a new plan. All three of us are to distract the Malchior until Friend Raven is able to use her powers to defeat him.”

“Awwww.” Despite his mouth being underwater, Beast Boy managed to whine in the odd mode of speech dragons employed. “Dude, I was being a distraction already and she yelled at me.”

The alien princess reached out and patted the changeling's head. “But this time she wishes for you to do the distracting. It is most important. You can do this for her, yes?”

Beast Boys eyes, blank white as they always were in animal form, focused on her. Did she really think she needed to put it that way to make him do it?

Okay, yes she did. And if Raven needed him to be the distraction, he'd be an awesome distraction.

“Got it, Star. Now can you get this guy offa me?”

Starfire's eyes glowed with righteous fury. “It shall be my pleasure.” Finally, she got to put all of the frustrations and anger she'd built up in the last few minutes to good use. She turned in place, looked up and let Malchior have it with both eyes. The mighty pulse was like a chest compression to the great dragon. He coughed and choked on his stoking flame and was forced to stumble back, confused as to what just hit him. What hit him next was Beast Boy.

Th green dragon lunged up from the water and tackled him full on. Malchior fell backward and they both plunged into deeper water. As they had seen earlier, water was the one element where the dragon was not king. Malchior roared his indignation and bit down on Beast Boy's neck.

But where once there was a dragon, there was now a Portuguese Man-o-war. The jellyfish swam eagerly into the dragon's maw and introduced his vulnerable tongue to thousands of stinging nematocysts. While Malchior was too big for the poison to seriously harm, it was still incredibly painful. And to make it worse, Beast Boy swiftly became a platypus, raking Malchior's already abused tongue with the only poisonous spurrs of any mammal.

Unleashing a tortured wail. Malchior threw himself out of the ocean in two hurrican-force beasts of his wings. He was immediately met with a punishing uppercut courtesy of Starefire, who then began pelting him with rapid-fire starbolts.

Enraged by the sneak attack and maddened by pain, Malchior opened his mouth to answer in flame. But instead of killing heat, his mouth disgorged some thirty feet of green anaconda. The gigantic snake preceded his building flame and wrapped around his jaws, constricting to clench them shut. With nowhere else to go, the flames came out his nose, irritating his already abused nostrils.

“Once I rule the world, I will dedicate an entire nation-state to devising torments especially for you, I hope you know this.” He went to grab the anaconda with both claws, but Beast Boy became a gecko and scurried to the top of his head. Once there, he resumed human form.

“So you admit you're not gonna kill me then?” He mocked. Before Malchior could smack him, he became a howler monkey and swung down to the dragon's earhole.

Howler monkeys are known as the loudest creatures on Earth (the loudest on Tamaran is the screaming gerbexan). Their namesake howl is loud because it's meant to be used for communication between monkeys miles from one another.

For reference, Beast Boy was all of three inches from Malchior's ear when he belted one out. Malchior yowled in pain as the terible din rattled its way through his skull.

“That is it!” He swiped at Beast Boy one last time and caught him, squeezing so as to cut him off in mid-howl. Sneering darkly, he bought the struggling changeling up to eye level. “On second thought, I'll just squeeze until your head comes off.”

Beast Boy gasped as air was forced out of his lungs. “Gotta admit dude. Maybe you shouldn't have been paying attention to me.”

“Yes, because getting my attention only resulted in your demise.”

“N...nope. I meant, you should've paid attention to her.” Beast Boy gestured with his eyes.

Malchior turned in place to see what the green teen was talking about...

… And saw the boardwalk. The entire boardwalk. Floating above the beach and encased in Raven's soul-self. The sorceress herself hovered below it, hands upraised and straining to maintain her hold as the whole thing slowly began to rotate for one hell of a homerun swing.

“Probably wasn't a good idea to squeeze this tight either.” Beast Boy added. “This is gonna get nasty.” With that, he shifted into a hagfish, a creature whose main claim to fame was being encased in an infamously slippery sheath of mucus. The force of Malchior's grip popped him up into the air like a champagne cork, where he transformed into a dolphin and let out a chittering dolphin laugh all the way down to the water below.

“You miserable little...” A large shadow interrupted Malchior's tirade as the boardwalk approached, picking up speed. He saw it coming, but there was no time to react. “Oh dear.”

Contact. Even infused with Raven's soul-self, hundreds of timbers snapped like so many twigs as Raven poured two years of dark thoughts, doubts and pain left over from her first encounter with Malchior into the blow.

Malchior tried to resist, the muscle his way through it all, but it was no use, he was swatted from the sky like a particularly loathsome mosquito and slammed down hard upon the sand dune – perfectly in Cyborg's crosshairs.

“Booya! Nobody messes with my tower!” Cyborg's voice came through the communicators of all present. There was a deep thrumming sound from the tower, as if God was tuning his bass before the wave arrived. Instead of coming as a blue blast, it was invisible except for how it's passage threw water aside in a shallow trough. It was headed straight for Malchior.

The dragon didn't even have time to rise form Raven's attack before the wave washed over him and carried him away. The force of the blast swept him along, using his nigh indestructible body to plow a furrow first through the sand and then through the street beyond for over six blocks until he slammed painfully into the corner of a hotel.

“Got him.” Robin reported. “Excellent job everyone.

“Indeed!” said Starfire. “We have opened the most prodigious can of butt-whoop this day.”

“Can I go to sleep now?” Beast Boy moaned over his connection. “You guys got woken up, but I've been awake this whole time!”

“Sorry Beast Boy, but after this, we're going to need to go through a serious debriefing.” said Robin.

“After what just happened, I think we all need sleep first.” said Raven. “I did just lift several hundred tons and swing it around, remember.”

Robin let out a small growl over the lack of discipline and likely would have launched into a speech derived from Batman's 'crime doesn't tuck you in at night' bedtime story, but Cyborg interrupted. “Don't celebrate too soon guys. Long range scanner is picking up movement. He's... he's getting up.”


	20. Lull

The debris on to of him was amazing in its variety. As Malchior forced himself to roll over and get to his feet, layers of concrete, asphalt, crushed cars, and twisted street fixtures sloughed off. The dust mixed with the blood seeping from a dozen places on his bodies where his scales had failed against enormous forces from the sonic cannon, rage-fueled starbolts, and plain old high explosives. Splinters of wood the size of a man's forearm stood up like gristly spikes and were joined by the snapped remains of street signs.

In his youth, before his hide hardened to its fullest, Malchior routinely wore similar grizzly accoutrements in the form of hundreds of arrows and spears that failed to end him. But that had been centuries ago and now, he wasn't used to the patchwork of little agonies Worst of all was his right front leg. He thought it sprained, maybe worse.

He checked his wings and found them mercifully undamaged. Like any good dragon, he'd done his level best to protect them during the battle. A dragon that could not fly could not survive.

Satisfied that he was reasonably whole, he turned his attention to one of the few unbroken windows in the building he clipped and issued a silent spell command. The glare on the glass became a reflection, then it shifted to the image of Aionor.

Before he could say anything, she smirked and cross her arms. “They beat you.”

“You expected it.” He accused. Though his mouth and tongue were useless from jellyfish toxin, dragons spoke in a language that was mostly telepathy.

“I did.” She said boldly, then made her voice sweet and mocking, “But I really did hope you beat them, Malchy.”

“I would have if it wasn't for--”

“Stop right there.” She cut him off. “It's always 'if it wasn’t for'. It doesn't matter what circumstances you had, you would have lost. They would have found a way. They always find a way. And if it isn't them, it will be the Justice League. The why of it is because none of you. Not one of you can see what's going on from the other side. You and Slade and Blood all think you can get into their psychology, but you can't because you're incapable of understanding how heroes think.”

Malchior glared at the image. “And you're different somehow?”

Aionor ignored him. “I let you charge out there so you would understand that I'm not expendable. I'm not just a means to an end, and I'm not powerful enough for you to justify consuming me for power like Raven. What I am is the key to victory, and I'm offering you a share in it.”

The dragon growled, but the thrashing he just took indicated that no, perhaps even he of all creatures couldn't topple the Titans alone. “Very well. I admit that you are useful and that your scheme may work. What then, shall I do now? I need to rest, to heal.”

“Come back.” she said and it rankled him how much it sounded like an order. “I have the perfect place for you to rest. And in the meantime, I'll take the next step alone.”

TT^TT^TT  
“Wait.” Cyborg's voice came from the communicators. “He's not coming back at us. Looks like he's flying away. Guess we whooped him harder than he expected.”

“Not hard enough.” Robin growled. “We can still catch up to him. Let's go, everyone.”

Raven gave him a heavy lidded stare. “Robin, what I just got done saying still stands. “I'm drained. Utterly tapped out. If there were lives at stake, I would push myself to collapse, but Cyborg said that Malchior is retreating.”

“He's most likely retreating to recover. If we let him do that, we might never get another chance.” Robin's muscles were burning from throwing the explosive discuses, but his tactical mind hedged out the pain. There were more important things now.

“Robin...” Starfire started.

“No, Star.” He cut her off. There were times when he'd fold for her, because he knew better than anyone that sometimes his paranoia got out of hand. So he relied on her to let him know when he was going too far. This time was different. This was a tactical decision and he knew his mind wasn't hyping the situation. “We've already shown him our trump card and it was the only way we took him down. If we don't catch up to him again, we might not be able to stop him.”

From where she was hovering it was easy for her to read Robin's posture. He was sure of himself, sure that what he was doing was best for everyone. She believed in her entire team, and she believed in Robin, not just as her friend, or boyfriend, but as their leader. So she didn't argue.

Taking silence as agreement, Robin shifted into full leader mode. “Alright. Star, fly back to the island and pick up Cyborg. Beast Boy, since you've apparently picked up the ability, I need you in dragon form.”

“What?!” Was Beast Boy's tired, but mortified response.

“Now wait just a minute.” Raven's voice was venomous. “You cannot make him do that.”

“We'll lose precious minutes getting the T-car and R-cycle.” Robin pointed out. “And if he has Malchior's shape, he has his flight speed. He's our best hope of catching up.”

“You don't understand.” Raven said, but he stopped her before she could go on.

“Give me one good reason why not.”

Raven paused. She was bone tired, so much so that she was slowly drifting back to earth without thinking. And it was effecting both her control and her judgment. Any other time, she would have explained what she'd figured out about why Beast Boy didn't want to transform into a dragon, and why now would be the most painful time to make him do it.

But her weary mind, so battered from a night of emotional chaos didn't want to talk about it. And what was more, the channel was open and Beast Boy would hear.

Seizing on the silence, Robin spoke again. “I thought so. Beast Boy, do it.”

“I really don't think...” Beast Boy tried.

“That's an order.” Robin said harshly. They were wasting time and giving Malchior a wider lead.

There was a defeated sigh on the other end, and a muttered 'sorry' before the green dragon appeared on the beach, actually quite close to where Robin was standing. It was glaring at him.

Robin nodded and walked toward him. “Everyone rendezvous at Beast Boy's location.” Then he closed the channel and stepped closer to Beast Boy, reaching out a gloved hand to pat his snout, the best approximation to a firm grip on the shoulder available to him at the moment. Beast Boy huffed and shied away.

“Yeah, I know.” said Robin. “But this is important, you know that. If he heals up, he might kill us all. And we both know he'll want Raven first, right?” He looked smug at the shocked expression in the dragon's eye and tossed out a half laugh. “Look on the bright side, whatever is going on with you two, now she'll blame you taking this form on me.”

“How did you...” Beast Boy stammered.

“Why does everyone forget I'm a detective?” Robin shook his head.

The conversation ended because Raven landed nearby, drifting down like a dandelion seed. Her glare was more frightful than the dragon's despite being heavily lidded with fatigue.

Robin opted not to make eye contact. “Beast Boy will fly you and Cyborg.” he said to the sand. “So you'll have some time spent not flying to regain some energy.” He was expecting some sarcasm at that, but she just continued to drill holes in him with her gaze.

Thankfully, Starfire arrived with Cyborg, giving him someone else to talk to. Neither of them seemed to be rearing to go, in fact, Cyborg looked uncharacteristically somber upon seeing Beast Boy. Robin wasn't surprised: if anyone in the tower had an idea what was going on, it would be Cyborg.

“Hopefully, we'll catch up to him quickly and bring him down.” He announced to the full team. “Then we can all get some much needed rest. Debriefing can wait. But right now, we have to take this opportunity because honestly? I don't know how we win otherwise.” Summoning all his energy, he whirled and pointed of in the direction Malchior had flown. “Titans, GO!”

TT^TT^TT

Aionor had the television muted, but it was telling her all she needed to know. Channel 21, Jump City's local news was on the scene, circling in a news chopper as Beast Boy in dragon mode took off with Raven, Cyborg and Robin on his back and Starfire flying vanguard.

She'd expected a few hours at least before they were on the move again after the punishing fight with Malchior, but based on what she knew about them, it wasn't such a surprise. Sure,t hey probably wanted to return tot he tower to lick their wounds, but Robin would get them moving.

That meant that, following Malchior, they would find the cavern in as little as two hours, and there were still a few things she needed to get done.

“So much for sleep.” She muttered, idly playing with the hem of her white and blue pajama top. She got up and opened her door a crack. The smell of lasagna from last night's dinner still lingered on the landing. Her room was first off the stairs and it meant that she didn't have to leave her room to communicate.

“Grandma, I'm going to bed early tonight, okay?”

“Okay, Nori.” Came a sweet, aged voice. “I love you.”

“Love you too!” Aionor shouted back before closing the door. On the weekends, she usually stayed up until five to lock up the house when her grandmother left for he early shift at her nursing job. Her grandmother would just have to lock up herself this morning.

Aionor crossed the room to the armor. It was in plain sight; no reason to hide it, as the thing was a family heirloom. Her grandmother never noticed that she'd been wearing it, even after all those years since that day. Carefully, reverently, she donned it, pausing only to gaze at the sword set into a bracket at the foot of the statue.

No point of carrying that. It would 'give pain only to the wicked', and after all this time and study, even she couldn't delude herself into thinking Raven was Wicked, much less the others.

She took one last look around. It was possible she wouldn't be back in a long while. With the number of gambits she needed to go just right, she might not survive. But it would be worth it: she would set everything right. Make things the way they should have been.

Taking a deep breath, she teleported.

End of Act II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ends Act 2 of our story and there's a lot of potential for wild mass guessing at this point. I totally invite it. What's Aionor really up to? How does she know all this stuff? What was with Robin in this chapter? What's raven's reaction to all that's happened-- she did get interrupted before she could say or even think anything, after all. It's all very complex. Heh.


	21. Night On Jump Mountain

“Please Star? I'm gonna fall over if I take one more step.” There was a weakness in Beast Boy's words that made it clear that he wasn't just whining. Not that anyone, even Robin could deny that the changeling was bone tired from the near crash landing he made in Mount Jump National Park.

Malchior's radar contact had disappeared in the forest in the mountain's shadow, leaving the Titans to sour them for evidence of his passage. Torn between sticking together to avoid that scenario that started everything and splitting up to search faster, Robin sent Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy to overfly the area while he and Cyborg searched for clues on the forest floor. Beast Boy's request came immediately after the pair of ground-pounders disappeared through the underbrush.

Starfire frowned at the green boy as he swayed to and fro on the edge of delirium from exhaustion. “I will allow it.” She said at length. “However, you must promise to transform into something that flies the moment Robin is in sight. He feels that we have been digging beneath him all night.”

A blank expression met that last part.

Raven had managed some sleep on the flight into the park, but the lack of a proper forty winks and the stress of the night made her even more snappish than usual. “Undermine. She means Robin thinks I was undermining him back there instead of pointing out an obviously terrible mistake.” For a second, Starfire was looking her right in the eye. It was rare that anyone did that with Raven except Beast Boy and that was only because he was largely immune to death glares.

“Oh.” The alien girl finally said. “Perhaps you would rather...”

“No. This is your kind of thing. He squirms too much and I need to concentrate to fly.” She quirked an eyebrow because for a second, she thought she caught something utterly foreign from Starfire's emotions. Was she... disappointed in her?

“Very well.” said Starfire, looking away from Raven and extending a hand. “You may board, friend Garfield.”

Beast Boy glanced from one girl to the other. He didn't get why Starfire had even bothered to ask. On the best of days, Raven wasn't up to this kind of thing, and tonight of all nights, it would have been incredibly uncomfortable for them both. Still, he needed rest badly, so he transformed into a squirrel and scurried up Starfire's arm to curl up under her hair in the back.

Within moments, he was asleep and the two girls took flight in silence.

Once they were at a good height to observe, Raven's attention strayed to the brief flashes of green she kept spying beneath her friend's hair? Should she have volunteered to mobile bed duty?

It wasn't as if he weighted much, and unconscious, he didn't fidget nearly as much as she put on. And it was fair in a way: she'd slept on his back the whole flight over. With Star uncharacteristically non-talkative, Raven was left alone with her thoughts. A weekend in her father's dimension sounded more soothing to her soul.

She hadn't told the others about Malchior's mention that Aionor had it in for her personally. Considering the source, doing so could easily be playing into the dragon's hands. But if it were true, did that mean that what she saw on the security tape was part of the plan?

Aionor told her, right before escaping Slade's old lair, that she'd left 'things to entertain' Raven back at the tower. Raven assumed it was the missing book, but what if...

But why? To what end?

The worst part was, Raven wasn't even sure what was going on now. In the tape, it looked like he enjoyed the kiss. Really enjoyed it. But was that just because he got a kiss in general, or because it was her... or a reasonable facsimile of her. Beast Boy wasn't above falling for any pretty face that gave him attention, but she never thought that he would consider her a 'pretty face'.

Of course, she could be wrong. After all, what did she know about romantic and kissing and anything of the sort beyond sensing the raw emotion? Maybe the look on his face hadn't been infatuation at all. Maybe it was something else. Something that meant that the isolation and guilt that followed after wasn't from finding out that he'd kissed someone wearing her body.

And by extension, was his guilt and constant apologizing over taking Malchior's shape proof of just how much he cared about her, or proof that he was trying to let go of his concerns about her emotional baggage?

She hated this. It was a puzzle and she didn't have all the pieces. Almost twenty-four hours passed between that kiss and when she returned. A lot could have happened in that time and there hadn't been time to ask.

And that was before even considering her own feelings on the matter. That was the elephant in the proverbial room and all the other speculation was a screen to keep her from examining those feelings. It was another of those things Raven Does Not Do.

Shortly after the End, she'd been forced to sort through her feelings where Robin was concerned. He had, after all, walked into Hell (well, a hell. Little 'h') with his worst enemy to find her, and that was after being immensely supportive throughout the entire ordeal.

Based on that, a little bit of a bodyguard crush had developed, but on introspection, there wasn't anything deeper. Aside from one hundred and ten pounds of enraged Tamaranian royalty with an attached broken friendship to be concerned with, she came to realize it would be like dating herself; all logic and introversion. Considering that she was never comfortable in her own skin, that wouldn't have been a joyful union.

And, of course, there was Aqualad. She felt so embarrassed with how she and Starfire acted around him compared with how Bumblebee got on with him that she eliminated him as a candidate based solely on how proximity would affect her IQ. Still it was fun to think about...

Second later, she had to bolt to the side to avoid a tree.

Maybe it wasn't just proximity to Aqualad that had that effect.

Raven righted herself and went back to following Starfire, sweeping the ground below for anyplace Malchior might have touched down. And yet, her mind still wondered.

Cyborg and Beast Boy had never even been on the menu. Cyborg started their time as Titans with a misanthropic view of his place in the dating game. He felt that girls were out of the question until his undercover mission to the HIVE Academy. As for Beast Boy, he was just a kid when they started, complete with cracking voice and a green night light in his room in the tower. Even though she was less than a year older, there felt like there was a big difference in their ages back then.

So had that changed? A great deal had, but she was unsure of how far. There was that troubling period after Terra returned the first time. She played it off as jealousy of the geomancer learning control so easily, but the reality was that with Terra around, Beast Boy was falling all over himself to impress her and, well, Raven discovered that she missed that attention, just as she had in recent weeks.

That didn't mean anything, she promised herself. Because she was also upset that Starfire was so excited about having real girl talks and going shopping with someone who actually tried things on, and cooking for someone who appreciated it. And that Robin was preoccupied with creating new training schemes to integrate Terra. If Terra had been a gearhead too, Raven would have felt well and truly put out of the group.

Therefore, that proved nothing, and she was back to square one. Could she even tell if she'd crossed a line between platonic affection and romantic affection? In herself or in others? What if she was wrong? Choosing poorly in either direction would be a disaster.

“Oof!” Her manic thought process was cut off when she flew headlong into Starfire's back. The impact dislodged the sleeping squirrel hidden under the other girls' hair and, through some quirk of fate, he landed squarely on top of her head without waking up.

“Sorry.” Raven said quickly as Starfire turned around. She only noticed her passenger by the way the alien princess grinned gleefully while staring at the top of her head. “I'm choosing to ignore him. Now why did you stop so suddenly.”

Starfire never stopped grinning and it was clear to Raven that it was taking every bit of her self control not to do flips of joy for whatever misbegotten... Wait. Starfire knew. That's why she covered for Beast Boy's attempts to run from the issue. That's why she had tried to get Raven to carry him n the first place. She was... trying to play matchmaker.

The varied and horrific possibilities of what Tamaranian matchmaking entailed sent a shiver up Raven's spine. This was a people who baked sense-destroyingly bitter pudding to cope with sadness. There was no telling what they did to induce love, but the fact that Starfire owned a device called a fungus cultivation vat did not bode well.

“Oh. I believe you were too lost in thought to notice, friend Raven,” Starfire said in a manner that was entirely too coy both for Raven's taste and the ungodly hour, “But I believe I have located the Malchior's hole of bolting.” She pointed and Raven could have slapped herself for not noticing that before.

They were beneath the trees on a rocky slope and there before them as a twenty-foot hole in the dirt and rock, leading into the mountain. Limbs had been broken off from above and there were puddles of dark blood on the moss in front of it.

“You know what, Starfire?” Raven asked blankly. “I believe you have too.”

TT^TT^TT

Static arced all over the room, as it was full of electronic and metallic odds and ends strew about work benches and pretty much any available surface.

From inside the access panel of a vehicle that was little more than a huge wheel with a seat and control panel in the center, there was a resounding thump in response to the racket.

“Ow! Alright, which one of you crud-munching barf-wranglers doesn't understand the meaning of 'do not disturb'?” Gizmo crawled out of the panel with a grease stained bump on his head. The amusing injury only added to his unique 'evil Charlie Brown' motif. Then he got a look at his visitor. “Oh crud, it's you!”

Aionor smiled sweetly from where she stood in the middle of the HIVE 5's garage. “You don't sound happy to see me, Mo-mo.”

He glared at her. “Because every time you show up, some how I end up doing a ton of cludging work for free!”

She rolled her eyes and started wandering about the garage, idly examining whatever caught her eye. “But Mo-mo, how much could you have really charged for hooking me up with free, untraceable DSL and a clean internet persona?”

“A lot. And stop calling me 'Mo-mo'!”

In a burst of static, she was behind him, leaning over rather far to whisper in his ear. “But I like calling you Mo-mo.”

Gizmo jumped away and rounded on her, nostrils flaring with his irritation. “It wasn't just the internet. You got me to build you like a dozen drone cameras, a state of the art alarm system, a high res monitor set-up, AND tune your grandma's car! Why do you even need all this tech, isn't your shtick supposed to be magic?”

“Why specialize when you can diversify?” She pointed out. “And this is the last thing I'll ask, I promise.”

“Forget it.” The diminutive criminal folded his arms and turned away. “I'm not doin' nothing unless you pay me. I'm serious this time.”

Aionor appeared in front of him, but he turned again. She followed him again with her teleportation. “Please, Mo-mo? For me?”

“I said no! Now beat it, ya cludge-headed broad.”

Unfazed by the anachronistic insult, Aionor appeared in front of him again, holding up a folded piece of paper. “Please? I promise you'll have fun doing it. Just have a look.”

Still glaring at her, he snatched the paper from her hands. “Hey, wait a minute... is that the T-car?”

“Mm-hm.”

“And you wanna do that with it? Metal-butt would flip his lid if he saw his precious baby converted into this!”

“So you'll do it?” Aionor asked hopefully.

“This time it's worth doing for free!” He agreed.

Aionor grinned. How was it that so many of the Titans' rogues were so laughably easy to manipulate? “That's great. I'll be back to collect you soon.” She walked to a clear part of the garage and stretched languidly, igniting the lightning around her fists. “I've got an appointment to show a certain half-demon that she's not alone in her weight class.”

Gizmo scoffed. “I don't think you're anywhere near that strong.”

“Maybe.” Aionor smirked and patted the collar of her armor. Something jangled in the space between that and her body suit. “But I've got luck on my side.”

And then she teleported away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Act III, here is a ton of foreshadowing. Yeah, I engaged in some ship-sinking here, but in my defense, it's used to show where Raven is coming from in all this. Every time she thought there was 'something' before, she was wrong, so she's understandably hesitant to even entertain those thoughts now.
> 
> Gizmo's cameo here wasn't planned originally. I came up with it to fill a plot hole with Aionor, who is magical and employs Malchior and the Puppet King, also both magical, using some high tech later in the story. It's also foreshadowing the reveal of another important plot point that's been laid out already, but I promise most of you won't see coming.
> 
> Cookie for anyone who figures out Aionor's secret weapon against Raven from the last section before the reveal.


	22. In The Hall of the Mountain Queen

It didn't take long for Robin and Cyborg to rendezvous with them at the tunnel. Beast Boy was rested enough to stand on his own in human form now and he and Raven took up opposite positions in the group, standing awkward and quiet.

“No doubt about it, there's something big down there.” Cyborg said, watching a graphic on his arm display. “Life sign readings are off the charts.”

“Then let us fly down there and administer copious amounts of the butt whoop.” Starfire declared. She was floating off the ground to do just that when Robin grabbed her arm.

“Wait. This doesn't feel right.” He explained. “The scheme to get the book Malchior was in was planned out. But the attack on the tower was impulsive and undisciplined. I think they're something more going on here. I think this is a trap.”

“Malchior acted as if he were acting independently.” Raven pointed out. “He even tried to turn me to their side. But it wouldn't be the first time he lied to get his way.” She added the last part more sullenly than even her usual.

Robin nodded. “At the very least, I think we can assume he's being guarded by those creatures from the night Raven was taken.”

“You can go all out against them.” Raven informed them, eyes on the ground. “They are not living things, but magical constructs created by their hive queen. More than likely, Aionor is controlling a queen. If this is the case, we will find it at the center of their hive. Assuming this cave is the one I was being held in, the hive is in a large stalactite in the center of the largest chamber.”

“Beast Boy, Starfire; if the hive is here, it's your jobs to find the queen and knock it out.”

“I thought my job was to fight Malchior.” Beast Boy asked. He didn't want to resume dragon form, but he'd wanted to lay a beating on the dragon from even before they knew he was a dragon. Hearing the prim and proper voice making fun of him behind Raven's door had made him inordinately angry.

“In close quarters with him wounded, I don't think you'll be needed there as much as in the hive.” Said Robin. He didn't give anyone time to comment further. “Now let's go everyone. Quietly and carefully. Only use light when you need to.”

With their leader at the fore, they stepped into the darkness of the cave.

TT^TT^TT

The tunnel smelled of fresh earth and dust from cut stone. And I kept smelling that way deep into the heart of Jump Mountain. Twenty feet high and the same across, it continued without variation at a gently sloping angle that spiraled ever downward.

Everyone was too tired, or too transformed-into-a-bat to offer much in the way of conversation beyond echolocating squeaks. They saw only by the low powered light of Cyborg's shoulder light and the ever-present glow of Starfire's eyes, taking guidance forward from Raven and bat-Beast Boy, who didn't need light to see by.

After twenty minutes, Beast Boy abruptly shifted into a bloodhound. After snuffling around a bit, he took human form. “We're way close.” He whispered. “You know that smell like when you pick up a grasshopper and it spits the black stuff on you and it stinks?”

The others gave him a blank look in the dim light.

“Well it's a thing you can smell and it's really, really strong down here. Last time I smelled it was when they took... that night.”

“Alright Titans.” Robin swiftly took charge. “This is it. They probably know we're coming. If we can't sneak in, we're going to have to fight intelligently. Beast Boy, Star, you know what you have to do. Stick close to each other; we can't afford someone else getting swapped.

Beast Boy frowned. He was pretty sure Robin meant that he couldn't take the idea of Starfire getting swapped. He really couldn't blame him for it either. Luckily, the dark hid his expression as he said 'yes sir' in his usual eager tone.

They moved forward in a group; Robin on point with Beast Boy in wolf form backing him up. Cyborg bought up the rear, and the girl flanks them from the air. As the air grew less close, indicating they were coming to an open chamber, Cyborg doused his light and Star did her best to dim her eyes.

A few minutes later, they came to the end of the tunnel. It was ringed with smooth spars of stone facing inward as if to threaten anyone that passed. The tunnel was too wide for them to be a threat though, and beyond them, with her demonic sight, she could see the cavern.

It was even larger than it had been when she first woke up there. The huge stalactite still dominated the center, but now there were carved galleries and alcoves in the surrounding wall and in the pit. All of them were filled with similarly carved furniture, mostly slab-beds, tables and what looked to be weapon racks.

Raven had been in enough evil lairs to recognize it for what it was: a barracks, the largest she'd ever seen. And it wasn't meant for the swarmers, but for humanoids, possibly hundreds of them.

“You were right, Robin.” She said as the moved into the room. It seemed to be empty. “There is something larger at work here. Aionor must plan to recruit a massive army.”

A burst of static filled the far side of the cavern and Aionor appeared, levitating in a nimbus of crackling white energy. “And you just had to come early.” Her tone was rueful, but oddly playful.

“Aionor!” Robin bellowed a challenge. “Where is Malchior? We've got unfinished business.”

The white-haired girl smiled. “I was hoping you'd say that. I'm sorry Titans, but your dragon is in another castle.”

Beast Boy shifted back to human form and chuckled. “Okay, that was pretty good.” The others glared at him in the dark so hard he could feel it. “What? So she knows how to quip. There's no shame in admitting it. Besides, you can't yell at me for joking in a serious situation, she's all alone here. How serious can it be?”

Aionor laughed, not a lighthearted one this time, but a cruel one. “You of all people should have learned to stop tempting fate. You know, part of my research on you all involved being subjected to far more pop culture than I think is healthy just to keep my informant on the line. Thankfully, even those stupid sci-fi movies have a good idea every once in a while.”

She turned and shot a bolt of white lightening into a capacitor at the rear of the cave. One by one, arc lights hammered into the cave walls began to hum to life. Their harsh, stark light illuminated the cavern, showing the entire team the empty barracks.

And what was more, it revealed the 'spikes' Raven saw that the mouth of the tunnel. They were everywhere, all over the walls, across the ceiling, and covering the central stalactite. Only they weren't made of stone. They were formed by hundreds of swarmers clinging to the wall and each other.

The light drove them to activity and they began dropping off the wall, hissing and clicking as they rushed to attack the Titans.

“Dude, I almost rented this movie!” Beast Boy whined.

Robin ignored him. “Titans! Defensive formation!”

Not missing a beat, Beast Boy became a stegosaurus, moving his bulky body to block off the right side of their formation, enforced by his spiked tail. Raven threw up a shield in front of the group while Starfire faced left, tracing a burning line in the stone floor to let the swarmers know that that route led to punishment. Cyborg faced rear with one sonic cannon deployed.

Robin was the center. It might have looked like the others were protecting their non-powered cohort, but the formation was designed specifically so that he could lend aid where it was needed. It took him seconds to analyze the situation and formulate a strategy.

“Alright, our objective is--”

Unfortunately, it took Aionor the same amount of time to make her move. She disappeared in a burst of static and reappeared between Robin and Cyborg. She struck out at the former with the heel of her palm and fired of a static blast at the latter. Both were sent flying.

Robin landed shoulder first against Raven's shield while Cyborg stumbled into the waiting claws of the swarmers.

Starfire saw the attack out of the corner of her eye and turned to make sure her boyfriend was okay, calling her name. The moment's distraction was enough for three swarmers to leap upon her, dragging her out of the sky.

Their dog pile didn't last long before a green, spike tail swept past and hurled two off of her. Starfire made quick work of the last with a single starbolt and used her eye beams to blast the next three behind those before they could get any closer. But Beast Boy's save opened him to similar attack. Five creatures slithered up to his exposed flank and set to work with their claws. They in turn were blasted into oblivion by a shot from Cyborg's sonic cannon.

“So much for the plan!” The half-machine teen grumbled. The swarmers that had attacked him were hanging off him, trying in vain to penetrate his armor with their sickle claws. He batted them off his person with his free hand.

“No. The plan is still good.” Robin had long since recovered and was hurling ice discs into the fray to create some cover for the others. One swarmer got close, but he swept it off its main stalk with his staff and finished it with a powerful stomp. The creature dissolved into mist upon its demise, being only a magical construct instead of flesh and blood.

“Star! Beast Boy! The hive!” He pointed up at the stalactite.

“But Robin, we are already being overwhelmed as it is.” Starfire protested as she caught a claw before it could skewer her and threw its owner into the seemingly endless supply to swarmers.

“We won't be if you take out the queen.” Robin said.

Beast Boy had gone to Sasquatch form to avoid getting swarmed over in his larger morph. He squashed one swarmer under massive fists and dodge another in time for Raven to crush it with a rock before giving Robin a look and snorting his disapproval of the plan.

“Oh, don't bother.” Aionor was back in their midst, this time using both hands to direct a huge blast at Starfire. The Tamaranian princess was caught off guard and sent spinning into the rock wall near the mouth of the tunnel. She flew straight up to avoid Robin's furious retort with his staff.

“Your plan is falling apart.” She pointed out before teleporting again. “My plan however is just kicking into high gear.” This time she appeared behind Raven. Instead of a blast, she caught the half demon in a bear hug from behind and let the current flow through both their bodies. Raven screamed as the electricity tore through her and then Aionor teleported them both.

They emerged in an alcove in the pit, where Aionor shoved Raven hard into a pillar. She hit face first, bloodying her nose, but kept her wit about her enough to whirl and unleash a wave of pure dark magic.

It broke around Aionor like water and tore up the gallery opposite them across the pit. Raven paused, stunned; the other girl hadn't even tried to block, it just failed to work on her.

Aionor grinned and chanted. “Nerconom Hezberek, Mortix!” A cone of black fire burst form her mouth and struck Raven, slamming her back against the pillar behind her and continuing on to dissolve the pillar entirely. Raven stumbled back at the loss of support and landed on her back, shock in her eyes.

“You didn't...” She murmured.

“How else was I supposed to get Malchior out of the book? Or course I learned black magic. But I know far more than that. I know another fun little chant too... would you like to hear it, Raven?”

The hate was peeling off the girl in waves, crashing against Raven's weary mind. She needed to focus. She needed time to gather her powers. So she said nothing and nodded.

“Good. Because it's the reason all of this is happening, Raven. I think you already know it: The Gem was born of evil's fire. The Gem will be his portal.” She stepped over the smashed pillar and loomed over Raven. “He comes to claim. He comes to sire. The End of All Things Mortal.”

Defiance sprung up through her weariness. Raven sat up. “I did already know that. And the world already ended. I'm the one that undid it.”

Aionor snarled and grabbed Raven by the front of her leotard, hoisting her up with surprising strength. “It was supposed to be me that stopped it. “ The hate mixed with a strange kind of sadness. Raven could see tears in the other girl's eyes. “By killing you.”

Raven's eyes widened. Up above there was a huge explosion. The others were probably looking for her and tearing the place apart to do it. If she called out, they would find her much faster, but now there was something she needed to know.

“What do you mean? Destroy the portal? Don't you think I tried?”

Aionor dropped her and looked away. Her hands sparked with her frustrations. “You don't get it, Rae Rae. I would have thought someone as literate as you would have noticed it at least, it's only an ancient prophecy about you.”

“Notice what?”

“It never says that Trigon destroys the world, Raven. It says that he sires the End of All Things Mortal. And Trigon the Terrible, the Source of all Evil only sired one thing, Gem of Trigon. It's you. You were going to be the End of All Things Mortal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is. It is so on right now.


	23. Why I Hate You

Beast Boy drove another group of swarmers away as a gorilla and risked returning to human form to speak. “Where's Raven? What happened?”

Staff whirling in an unending succession of blows, Robin had his own hands full just avoiding being overwhelmed. “I don't know. But we can't waste time here if this was just a trap to separate us.” He drove one creature that won past his defenses with a forward kick. “See if you can smell her still here in the chamber. If not, we'll beat a fighting retreat.”

Cyborg dodged back, narrowly missing the heavy pick-claw of one of the digger caste swarmers. The creatures had learned quickly that mere warriors couldn't pierce his metal casing and sent heavier beasts against him. Even they couldn't stand up to his sonic cannon though, and the one that missed him this time learned that lesson at point blank range.

“And be quick about it! These things aren't as dumb as they look!”

Beast Boy nodded and shifted into a hound dog. The swarmers pressed in on him instantly, forcing him to juke and bound past flashing claws until he got room to transform again. Hounds were only his go-to tracking form because their senses could distinguish the age of scents best. The king of the olfactory gland was the vulture and that's what he became, flapping skyward out of the mob of monsters.

The mossy, chemical scent of the swarmers dominated the cavern, masking everything else to the point that he had to sift to find what he was looking for: a potpourri of various brands of incense, aged parchment, dried ink from antiquity, and a hint of brimstone she couldn't rid herself of no matter how hard he knew she tried—Raven.

A globe of green energy scudded past him to burst against the head of a glider caste swarmer he didn't see coming. It was followed shortly thereafter by Starfire, who closed with the glider and the three others on its wing. She passed below the leader to grab it's tail and swung it mightily into its two compatriots. Without even looking, she finished the last with a starbolt lobbed over her shoulder.

“You must be more careful, Friend Beast Boy.” She scolded him, then her voice turned more soothing. “Have you done the finding of Friend Raven yet?”

Beast Boy cawed in the affirmative and dipped his head toward the pit. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of another wing of gliders dropping down from above. Thinking quickly, he turned into a humming bird to dodge and then an orangutan to grab on to the leader of this group, dragging it down to the ground.

They hit with a resounding thud with the swarmer underneath. Seconds later, its wing-creatures followed, folding their frills to bring their claws to bear on him. Starfire swatted all three from the air with her eyebeams, allowing him to deal with the warriors that rushed him from the sides.

Starfire frowned. She really wanted to let Beast Boy save the day for Raven. The romantic in her though that was what they needed to put Aionor's trickery behind them and perhaps move on to something more. But time was of the essence: there was no telling what Aionor was doing to Raven, or how long it would take Beat Boy to extricate himself from the press of monsters.

She sighed and put on her warrior's face. “Inform the others.” She shouted down to him. “I shall go and seek Friend Raven.”

TT^TT^TT

Raven felt her throat constrict. In the years leading up to her sixteenth birthday, she would be lying if she said she never considered the possibility. Prophecies were tricky things and wording was often left indistinct. It had almost been a relief to her when she only became the Portal, when she woke up as an amnesiac child in Hell.

And she always questioned why she hadn't died right after the portal opened. Her purpose had been through, wasn't it? Or maybe not...

“No...” She muttered.

“Oh yes.” said Aionor maliciously. She loomed tall over Raven, silhouetted in the light from above. “I saw what was supposed to happen every week from the day I turned five: Trigon, thinking you were just a spent and useless thing cast you down into the Pit from which he rose. But you're stronger than your father. You know that now, don't you Raven?”

The half demon rocked up into a sitting position, her hair falling over her face. “But I didn't use that power to end the world. I banished him with it.”

“But you were supposed to kill him.” Aionor said harshly. “And take his power and end the world. I saw it hundreds of times.”

“That's not what happened!” Raven shouted at her.

“Don't you think I know that!?” Aionor screamed right back. “No, that's not what happened at all. Instead, you gave your powers to your friends and instead of fighting your way out of the Pit, you had to be carried. And instead of becoming the demon that would end the world, you stayed the demon that became a hero.”

Raven backed up until her back touched a stone table and used it to lever herself up to standing. “Then why in the name of... of... I don't even know who to swear to—do you hate me so much? If I did do that, you would have died too!”

Aionor's sparks redoubled in brilliance and the terrible light filled the room. “No. No it wouldn't have. And neither would the world. That was my job: to stop you. And I trained for it; Every. Single. Day. Even when I bled. Even when I collapsed from exhaustion. Even the day of my parents' funerals.” She approached Raven in radiant glory. “Even when I broke down crying because I didn't want to have to kill you.”

She leaned in close. “My life was destroyed. I couldn't have friends, couldn't have hobbies, all because one day I had to save the world by becoming your murderer, Raven. And every day, my grandmother would hold me close and tell me it was worth it; worth it because I had a higher purpose in life.

“And then you made a choice. You chose to protect your friends. You chose to be the hero. Maybe you think it was the hard choice, but we both know it isn't. Being good, you got friends, a family—people who love you and would do anything for you. Being the villain? That's the hard thing. That's what I've learned these past months. You're the one who has to plan and be proactive. You're the one who has to manipulate and betray. In the end, you're hated and hunted and you have a Sword of Damocles over your head saying that the heroes always win. That's how I know I'm stronger than you.”

Raven grit her teeth. “You think this is easy?!” Her anger cracked the rock wall behind her and crushed two stone chairs to dust. “I'm a DEMON. Everything in me wants to hurt and destroy and break down whatever and whoever it can. Even the people I care about most.”

A white glow filled her eyes. “So don't you EVER tell me my life is easy.” Her soul-self leapt out at Aionor, fully realized as a black raven. Hellish energy tore up the floor around her and blasted the archway into the alcove wider. But none of it touched Aionor, who stood unflinching at the center of the storm.

The glow faded and Raven's eyes widened in shock. “How...”

“Remember the ring of Azar Slade gave your friends? It was an artifact Trigon gave to his priest to protect him in his realm. It had a piece of his power in it.” Aionor smirked and grabbed the cord around her neck. Slowly, she pulled from beneath her armor, her talisman: a necklace made `from a single, nondescript penny.

Raven knew the significance instantly and her eyes narrowed accusingly. “Where did you get that?”

Letting the penny drop and clank against her armor, Aionor rolled her eyes. “Well I knew you dropped it in the library basement, so I took a little stroll in the wreckage and what do you know? See a penny, pick it up... you know the rest, I'm sure.”

“How do you know all this?!” Raven's eyes began to glow in fury once more.

Aionor ignored the question. “Good. Get angry; that's what I'm going for. Maybe if you had a little less temper and a little more nostalgia—your stuffed chicken not withstanding—maybe I wouldn't have this little treasure. Then again, I guess you can just shift blame to your 'demon' to excuse treating your friends like crap even though we both know that you're just a bi--”

An explosion of green light erupted across Aionor's back, pitching forward past Raven. A second and a third hit her and slammed her into the wall. More and more followed, until Aionor was obscured by a cloud of powdered stone.

Raven looked toward the arch and found a shadow standing there, easily recognizable by its green, glowing eyes and green-lit hands.

“You will cease the words of cruelty NOW.” Starfire declared with enough authority to give even Robin a run for his money. Her gaze softened when she saw A bloody-face Raven standing there. “Friend Raven! You are harmed.”

“Nothing I can't take care of.” Raven droned. “We need to leave. Now. This was all a trap.”

“Like you didn't know that coming in.” Aionor appeared in a burst of static and launched a blast at Starfire, launching the princess out of the alcove and almost over the railing around the inner walkway. She sprawled against a column, cracking it along the base on impact.

Thinking quickly, Raven levitated the stone table, uprooting it from the floor in the process and swung it hard into Aionor, sending her out along the same trajectory as she'd just sent Starfire. Not wanting to give the other girl a breather, Raven followed her out, surrounded by dozens of loose stones of various sizes.

“Maybe my powers can't hit you directly.” Raven's voice reverberated slightly with her demonic rage. “but I can still crush you.”

“Just a little more.” Aionor muttered but she was drowned out by a roar from above. All three girls looked up to find a green tiger leaping from the lip of the pit. In mid air, it did a flip and became a gorilla, fists held high and clasped together for a thunderous blow on Aionor.

Battle training install in her a penchant for thinking clearly in dire situations. It wasn't as developed as Robin's but it was enough to pull out a desperate gambit.

“Beast Boy, no.” She said, trying to managed the flat shout Raven would be likely to make.

It worked. Instead of crushing blow, the gorilla landed lightly next to her and transformed into Beast Boy. “What?” He pointed accusingly at Raven. “You switched with her again? You're seriously twisted lady.”

Raven opened her mouth to protest, but Aionor answered from beside him with a titanic lightening blast. It surrounded him and propelled him at the same time, sending him careening through three pillars before allowing him to crash against the last and fall, unmoving to the ground. Throughout the whole ordeal, she never took her eyes off Raven.

Without the support of those pillars and the ones previously destroyed, the gallery and those above it began to collapse.

Even as Raven started to raise shields over her friends, she felt Aionor grab her arm and teleport.


	24. Emotion and Instinct

Aionor dropped them off in the gallery opposite where they had been standing. The collapse on that side continued, with that level collapsing down into the next in a cacophony of clattering stone and a rolling cloud of dust.

Somewhere in that shifting pile of rubble, Raven knew, were Starfire and Beast Boy. And she had no way of knowing if they were still alive. Where before she was drained from using her power earlier and mildly punch drunk from Aionor's handling of her, the sight that met her eyes now wrapped her in a a terrible clarity and forced her to reflexively tap reserves she rarely accessed.

There was no emotion now. It was if those had been burned out of her, leaving only the pressing and all consuming task: find them. Dead or alive, whole or broken, she would not let them be lost.

She held out her hands and heard herself speak her mantra, casting her soul-self out into the heaviest slabs of stone, pulling them up and hurling them down into the pit. It went on forever; a frantic search fouled by the constant swirls of pulverized rock.

Suddenly words were spoken into her ear from lips just inches from her ear. “Angry yet, Raven?”

A first, she didn't even recognize it. She might not have recognized anything in her state. But she knew in a purely cerebral way that anger and this voice connected. She still couldn't feel, but she knew—knew on a basic level that she would only tolerate one answer.

It wasn't her normal style, but she was small, light and quick. Aionor didn't even see it coming when she rounder on her and put everything she had into the left cross to the jaw.

The white-haired girl's lip split and she took several involuntary steps back. It was enough space for Raven to launch herself at her, knocking her to the ground. Raven landed on top and she never once thought about her powers. Her powers came from her demonic half. It was her human half that made her pound at Aionor wit her fists, again and again. It was her mothers blood that made her scream incoherently in the other girl's face.

White-hot with rage no demon could ever know, the moment didn't last. No matter how driven Raven was, Aionor was half again her weight and had spent her entire life learning to kill Raven. She managed to block the punches after just getting a bloody nose added to her split lip and shocked Raven off her with a blast to her side.

Both flew apart, leaning against opposite side of the same arch. Aionor recovered first, but when she stood, Raven kicked her in the stomach and sent her slumping back against the arch again.

As the adrenaline ebbed, Raven found her words again. “If you wanted to hurt me for that, why all of the theatrics? Why the elaborate plan. You've had plenty of times to get me alone and torture me; why go to these lengths?”

Aionor knew enough not to get close again, levering herself up against the arch. “It's not all about you, Rae-Rae. I want you to suffer like I did, but that won't fix anything. MY plan isn't for you: it's the fix destiny.”

“You mean where you're a hero? You definitely doing that the wrong way. If you hadn't done all of this, you could have come to us. You could have been a Titan.” Raven sat up, breathing deeply as she tried to calm herself. IT wasn't helping. Somewhere, she heard a great deal of stone moving.

“And be on a team with you? Have to see you every day knowing what I was supposed to do to you?” Aionor spat. “No way. The only way to fix it now is to wipe the slate clean. No one can know what I've done, or what I was meant to.”

Raven reached out to use her powers, but Aionor beat her to the draw, striking her with a powerful blast to the chest that tore a ragged shout form her. Then she closed, lifting Raven with her forearm pressed firmly into the other girl's throat.

“Now all I need is for you to get nice and angry. I want to see the real you, Raven. Was crushing your friends not enough? Do I have to go up and get Cyborg too? Ooo, or maybe Robin? It seemed like you had a little puppy love thing for him. Will that make you angry?”

Raven grit her teeth. “I'll let you kill me first.”

“Not gonna happen, Rae-Rae.” Aionor said. “I'm not going to kill you. I'm never going to kill you. But what I will do is keep pressing your buttons.” She put more pressure on Raven's throat. Behind her, more stone thundered into the pit.

“Let's try another one. Did you know that I kissed Beast Boy while I was you?”

Stars were forming before her eyes and Raven couldn't force herself to remain stoic. Stone cracked around her as she growled. “I found out tonight.”

“Settle a bet.” Aionor said offhandedly; “Does it bother you because it was HIM, or because it was ME?”

In spite of the arm cutting off her air, Raven tried to lunge at Aionor.

“That worked.” Aionor smirked. “You should have seen him: he ran to his room the second I did it. He was almost as disgusted as me.” Her smirk turned to a grin of triumph as she saw Raven's eyes widen. “Good. Now you're ready to show me your demon.”

But that wasn't why Raven had that reaction. She hardly heard a word of what Aionor said, because the emotional wave broke over her hard and fast, obliterating the pain and trauma that dripped off Aionor.

It was powerful; emotion beyond emotion. The platonic ideal of emotions, stripped of cognition and introspection. She rarely sensed instincts before, but only because rarely were they so clear and to the point. And she'd felt this twice before. It was 'Protect'.

“Not my demon.” Raven managed to rasp, not at all victorious, because she knew the mental cost it would inflict.

Aionor was about to ask what she meant, but at the instant, a section of fallen rock was thrown aside with such strength that they flew across the pit and pelted down around the two girls. This was followed by a roar like no other in the animal kingdom-- because it was composed of so many of them.

“Starfire.” Aionor muttered, hopefully. “It can't be true. That thing does NOT only come out to protect you. That's all just.. just a rabid fanboy with wishful thinking.” A moment later, it blasted through the railing not far from them and put to rest all of her own wishful thinking.

It hung from the wall, its claws puncturing stone to anchor it. Built like a plus sized gorilla, it's limbs ended in clawed paws like a wolf, but with extra, articulated joints. It's head as a mix of lion, bat and badger with a flowing green mane. Like all of Beast Boy's forms, it had pupil-less, white eyes, but these burned with an intensity that left nothing to the imagination about what it was looking at.

The Beast had arrived.

Aionor gasped and just as it leapt for her, she teleported. It crashed down where she had been standing, caws tearing the ground. Confusion came over its face as it searched for its target. When she wasn't apparent, it looked to Raven, she pushed off the wall, coughing in the dust and trying to gulp down as much oxygen as she could.

The Beast paused to sniff her as if it was taking some sort of diagnostic from it.

“I'm fine.” She choked out, pushing its nose away form her. “Just keep a look out; she likes to attack from ambush.”

Even if it did understand, it didn't seem to care. Content that she wasn't seriously injured, it turned her around with one paw and took her cape in its teeth.

“Hey!” She protested as the behemoth stood, pulling her off her feet in the process. It ignored her, looking for a quick route out of the pit.

“No.” Raven said firmly. “We can't leave. Starfire is somewhere down in the rubble.”

This gave it pause. It knew what a 'Starfire' was and that they were good things. But Raven was in trouble and should be taken away from trouble. But then again, the last time it took Raven away from trouble, everyone attacked it and it was made clear that no one except maybe Raven (who properly credited it with protecting her) wanted it to return.

That included Beast Boy, which wasn't right and the Beast knew it. After all, it WAS Beast Boy and something wouldn't be so unwelcoming of itself. So it stayed dormant, never stirring except once when Beast Boy willed it to emerge and do battle with an army of fire. That hadn't ended well.

This time had to be different. It had to do things 'right', or it might never be allowed to help again, just like the form of the dragon, or the giant scorpion. It didn't understand why, but some forms, some instincts were things Beast Boy feared to use, even when it cost him in pain not to.

With the rudimentary cognitive abilities it had, the Beast chose to ignore Raven. It would come back for the 'Starfire' once she was safe. As simple as its mind was, it knew that it only got this chance on the slim hope that it could save Raven.

With a mighty leap, it cleared the floor above.

“Stop!” Raven shouted, twisting in an attempt to get free. “We can't just leave her., especially since we don't know where Aionor got to?” finally, her hand came up and found the clasp that held her cape. She hit the release and fell free, feeling painfully exposed without her hood.

The Beast grunted its displeasure, but before it could act, Aionor appeared above it. Raven tried to shout a warning, but the white-haired girl landed atop him and with a strained expression, teleported way.

“No!” Raven screamed, black energy sending cracks racing crazily along the pillars and alcoves in the gallery. A moment later, an explosion rang out and a green, glowing shape emerged from a trialing cloud of debris to hover before her.

Starfire was so incensed that she had formed a starbolt so large that it encompassed her entire body, not just her hands. She was missing one bracer, her neck guard was dented and slightly melted, and most tellingly, her hair was raggedly shorn about four inches shorter than she normally kept it.

“There are no words in all the war-tongues of Tamaran to speak my disgust for the thing I have heard while escaping the fallen rocks.” She said. “I have had enough of this Aionor. Her evil ends now!”


	25. All Fall Down

It was a quick and dirty plan. She hadn't expected to be fighting the Beast at all, hadn't bothered drawing up contingencies for it. So she did what she did best when she didn't know how to handle a task: she dumped it off on someone else.

In this case, Aionor picked the swarmers as 'someone else', dropping the Beast into a thick cluster of them. It was a vast miscalculation. The Beast didn't get confused; it was pure instinct. The swarmers didn't even slow it down. Claw tore through them in droves, not pausing to let them dissolve before moving on to the next.

Within seconds, a wide swath around it was cleared and more swarmers were reluctant to fill the gap. The Beast sniffed the air. Raven wasn't near anymore. But the one that hurt her was. Stopping that one was just as good as standing over Raven to protect her because this was the predator that hunted her; one of the rare creatures that could hurt her.

It gave no warning before turning and leaping at Aionor. She tried to fly up, but never expected something so big to jump so high. It's huge paw caught her leg and used it like a handle. On the way down, it swung her straight down like a club.

Aionor's Beast-assisted fall was broken by a digger caste swarmer, which was destroyed instantly. Shocked by the sudden turn of her fortunes, Aionor ignited her body in static, sending a deadly shock coursing into the beast.

Roaring in pain, the hulking monster swung Aionor one more time, this time throwing her as far away from it and Raven as it could.

Across the cavern, Robin and Cyborg were fighting in a circle enforced by bo strikes and sonic blasts.

“We've gotta do something big real soon, Rob.” Cyborg said, cutting down swarmers by the dozen, only to find dozens more incoming. “I've never seen so many mooks in on place before. Why does she even need a barracks if she's got these things?”

Robin smashed one swarmer to the ground and dispatched another with a spinning kick. “Short answer? She doesn't.”

“What? Then what's the point of hollowing all this out?” Cyborg kicked a swarmer out of his way that slipped in past his fire, then launched a volley of shoe rockets into a cluster.

“I don't know yet.” Said Robin, sidestepping a scything claw, then breaking it with a hard elbow, sending it's owner reeling back, hissing in pain. “But look around: there's table, chairs and beds, but nothing for food, nothing for entertainment. And all the lights are out here, not in the rooms. All of this is just a show.”

An unnerving, but familiar roar caught their attention, followed by another a minute later, but on the opposite end of the cavern. Suddenly, a white comet was thrown through a line of unfortunate swarmers. It finally broke through the ranks attacking the two Titans and clanged into Cyborg's back.

The half-machine Titan turned and goggled at finding Aionor lying at his feet, trying to clear the cobwebs.

“Well ain't that convenient.” He chuckled. “Just the gal I wanted ta have a talk with.” He grabbed her by the back of her armor and hoisted her up.

She gasped, but it wasn't because of him. A green blur tore through the swarmers, bellowing with hatred. Just as it came fully into view, Aionor teleported, leaving Cyborg to face the Beast.

Her departure was almost entirely ignored when Cyborg saw what was in front of him. “Aw no. B, not again.” He murmured as the deadly behemoth lumbered up to him, snarling. It smelled Aionor on him, but it didn't see Aionor.

Robin puzzled for a moment as to why the swarmers had cut off their attack, but when he looked behind him, he had all the answer he needed. “Oh no. Cyborg, get down.” His hand went to his belt. The other would hate him when they found out, but after the first fiasco with the Beast, even though Beast Boy was exonerated, he'd had a set of special discs made: sonic screamers that would be torture to the Beast's sensitive ears.

He got one in his hand, but before he could throw it, a lightning bolt as wide as he was tall tore down from above, striking the Beast directly in the chest and driving it back into the wall, shattering stone.

Aionor, breathing heavily and listing from the pain the Beast had inflicted, hovered above them, eyes locked on the cloud of debris where the Beast hit it. Sure enough, the monster burst from the dust cloud with a mighty leap toward her. She responded with another lightning bolt that slammed it right back into the wall.

She was readying a third when a beach-ball sized orb of green fire whizzed past her, slamming into the rock wall beyond with enough heat and energy to send out spattered of lava where the rock melted. It was followed by another and another, forcing Aionor to teleport or be incinerated.

Starfire emerged from the pit with a primal scream, still throwing what Robin's mental catalog was already calling galaxy-bolts. Raven wasn't far behind, almost invisible at the heart of the raven-shaped manifestation of her soul-self. Boulders the size of a man orbited her and as Aionor came into sight, she let them fly all at once, like a shotgun the size of a subway car.

Both 'bolts and boulders missed their mark, but they demolished the alcoves and galleries behind Aionor, causing yet another minor collapse in the cavern.

Aionor focused on Starfire first. “Nerconom Hezberek, Mortix!” Black flame plumed form her mouth to engulf the alien princess. The force of it drover her to the ground and all but extinguished the 'bolts already in her hands. Starfire was up almost immediately, but reeled from the unsettling sensation the spell sent through her.

“Everyone!” Robin shouted. “Regroup and focus everything you have on Aionor. Whatever it takes, bring her down!” It took everything in him not to run to Star. And he knew that everyone would think he was issuing that order purely in retaliation.

But the latest collapse of the galleries had brought Aionor's plan to sudden, terrible clarity in his mind. They needed to reconvene so Raven could get them out immediately.

Cyborg was the only one that seemed to take it to heart. He converted his other hand into a cannon and let Aionor have it with both barrels as he followed Robin forward to where the Beast was trying to recover from that last bolt. Robin contributed to his own plan by throwing a handful of explosive discs.

But Starfire was slow to stand, and Raven... Raven was following half of his orders at least.

She didn't move, but her soul-self was spiraling down like a tornado to grab more and more rubble to pelt Aionor with. Her eyes and mouth glowed so brilliantly white that they rivaled the arc lights around the tunnel.

That was not a good sign, Robin knew. She had been running on fumes, and now, his best guess was that she was running on emotion. So far she was keeping control, barely, but it was only a matter of time before she cracked.

Just as Robin and Cyborg reached it, the Beast forced itself to its feet.

“Whoa man.” Cyborg said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. “You gotta stay down.”

The Beast was having none of it. Raven was fighting Aionor and it wasn't there to help her. That could not stand. Unleashing another composite roar, it bounded into the air, headless of the fact that the air around Aionor was filled with flying boulders.

Aionor only had a second's warning. And in the second, fear paralyzed her, the recent brutal attack still fresh in her mind. She lost concentration and stopped flying. That was what saved her.

Gravity reclaimed her enough that the Beast overshot her, its claws slicing the air barely an inch form her. She screamed and fired a powerful lightning bolt into it from point blank range.

A thunderclap filled the chamber, shaking everything. The Beast was thrown with the force of an explosion into the massive, central stalactite. Stone cracked around it, kicking up dust all around the point of impact. Aionor flew in the opposite direction, hitting the ground hard and rolling.

After several agonizing seconds, the Beast fell from where it hit, trailing dust after it as it tumbled into the pit.

Raven acted quickly, forming a platform out of her soul-self beneath him. But Aionor, lying with her cheek pressed to the stone floor of the cavern, mustered a tiny burst of static, which she flicked right up into Raven's eyes.

By reflex, the dark girl covered her face to protect it, in the process, losing the concentration that kept the platform in place. The Beast fell through and disappeared into the dark pit.

When Raven took her hands way from her face, her white eyes were red and to the horror of her teammates, split into four as they watched. A scowl came to her face, warping and twisting into a saw-toothed maw as her body elongated. Without her cloak, they others could see the tentacles of dark energy emerging from her body.

She pointed a black clawed finger at Aionor and when she spoke, she spoke with the voice of legion; a cacophony of her own voice, her father's and the distortion of Hell. “Why did you do that?” She demanded.

Aionor didn't answer. Her mouth was moving as she recited a healing spell.

Raven wasn’t going to let her finish it. Or anything. Ever again. “I'll show you the fate of anyone that attempts to take what's mine. Much like the Beast, Raven's inner demon wasn’t a creature of cognition or social mores. What it wanted, it took and did whatever it pleased with. Also like the Beast, it knew what it wanted long before the rest of her did.

Five dark tentacles struck out, their tips hardening into spears, all on course to hit Aionor. They shattered mere inches from her body.

Aionor calmly finished her healing spell and sat up. Her cocky smile was only marred by an aside glance at Starfire. That dragonfire wasn't going to keep the alien down much longer. Time to finish this. Or rather, let Raven finish it.

She tapped the penny still around her neck. “Forget something, Rae-Rae? What's the matter? Big, scary demon and you can't even touch me?”

All four of Raven's eyes narrowed. “It won't be as satisfying with spitting you like a pig,” dozens of tentacles shot out and grasped the central stalactite, the one she'd earlier identified as the swarmer hive. Oh yes, this would be poetic. “But crushing you will still get the job done.”

She ripped it free from the ceiling, bringing hundreds of tons of rock to bear on her nemesis.

Wait. Hundreds of tons? As a hive, it should be hollow. It shouldn't be this... No.

Looking up, she found her mistake. The stalactite wasn’t the hive. The ceiling was. And she'd just pulled out what was basically the central support. Cracks were racing along it, faster than her eyes could track.

“No...” She murmured, eyes fading to white and merging back into two. “What have I done?”

Aionor grinned sweetly. “You just dropped a mountain on the Teen Titans.” And then she teleported way.


	26. Crumble and Collapse

Starfire shivered as the last of Aionor's black magic worked its way through her system. She was no stranger to having her powers blocked or interfered with and she never got used to it. Feeling week was something all Tamarans had a hard time with, and it was worse for Starfire because she had chosen this life of a hero, a life where the lives of innocents and of her friends depended on her. Losing her powers didn't just make her feel weak, but it made her feel like she was failing those she cared about.

She looked around and saw that without Aionor's direction, the swarmers had reverted to little more than wild animals, fleeing from imminent destruction.

Up above, she heard Raven scream and saw her soul-self emerge as a curtain of black energy that tried to stretch across the entire crumbling ceiling. It was somehow less substantial than Star had even seen it. The normally distinct white edges were faded gray and jagged weirdly. Here and there, it managed to hold up the huge boulders threatening to fall in on them all, but as she watched, one or two particularly big ones smashed through to fall among the now wild swarmers.

Raven had come to her limit, surpassed it, and yet it wasn't going to be enough. But still she tried, and Starfire could see why: Raven had to cover the entire ceiling because the Titans with so spread out. At the very least, she could help with that.

Tapping a fresh joyful memory; walking along the beach outside the tower with Robin, enjoying milkshakes; she got her flight working again and zipped up to where Raven hovered, face a mixture of warring despair and concentration.

“Friend Raven! You must focus your power. It will not hold spread out in this way!” She shouted as she came along side.

“I... have to.” Raven strained, eyes tightly closed. “Beast Boy... he fell in the pit. He'll be crushed.”

If she were Robin, Starfire would have pointed out that he'd be crushed just a surely if she didn't concentrate her power. But she wasn't Robin, she was Starfire, the heart of the team with more empathy than the literal empath.

“I shall make you a deal.” She said. “I shall protect your Beast Boy is you will protect my Robin and also Friend Cyborg.”

The tiny part of Raven's brain that wasn't press-ganged into service maintaining the barrier really wanted to argue with Star's wording. But unlike a certain green shapeshifter, she had the common sense to know that this wasn't the time or place.

“G-go.” She grunted and started to pull the barrier back from the edges. Multi-ton boulders crashed down among the swarmers, crushing hundreds. The black curtain became a bar, extending from above Cyborg and Robin to above the pit. “I'll try and keep it from falling on you on the way down.”

Starfire nodded and in the process, caught Raven's eye. She didn't say anything, but she made a promise at that moment: she wouldn't come back without Beast Boy.

Raven watched her plunge into a swirling dust below, becoming little more than a green glow in the darkness. She couldn't afford to watch for long. The mountain shifted and more boulders slammed into her shield. Part of it cracked and before she could repair it, several huge chunks of rock won through, tumbling into the pit.

She almost forgot herself. Almost let go of the ceiling to stop those few boulders.

Thankfully, she was not alone.

A small flight of explosive discs struck the debris, blasting it into pieces. Moments later, the familiar blue wash of a sonic cannon struck the largest of the pieces, pushing it aside so that it landed on the lip of the pit instead of falling into it.

“Hang in there, Rae!” Cyborg shouted.

“I don't... have much... choice.” Raven forced herself to steady her breathing as the mountain started shifting again. She couldn't ignore that she was trying to hold up an entire mountain with her power waning. It might have even been possible on a normal day.

This wasn't a normal day though. She'd been bought down into a personal hell that even her father couldn't reign over. She was running on pure fear and desperation now. Maybe that was why she was even able to hold on for so long. Surely, she'd never felt anything as strongly as she did those at that very moment.

But not even that wasn't enough. More breaks appeared, allowing more slabs of stone to fall through. Robin and Cyborg were quick to destroy or offset them, but as more and more weak points formed in the shield, Raven realized that she wouldn't be able to protect both them and the pit.

Her stomach churned with nausea. She didn't want to make that choice. She couldn't make that choice. More cracks in the shield. A freeze disk wedged itself into a rapidly expanding hole and it's spreading rime of ice took some pressure off, allowing her mind to work just a little better.

No, she couldn't make the choice to sacrifice one pair of the people closest to her over the other. But she choose to put her faith in Starfire. Despite what looked like naivete, despite a perpetual failure to fully grasp the English language, and despite what Raven felt were a slew of stereotypically girly aspects to her personality, Starfire was tough, canny and reliable. If she said she could find and save Beast Boy, Raven would believe her.

It was idiotic symbolism, she was sure, but as she called out a warning, and relinquished her hold on the part of the barrier that protected the pit, she felt was if Starfire was taking part of the mountain's weight off her shoulders. What a perfect analogy for being a Titan.

Without Raven's soul-self holding it back, tons or rock broke free, thundering down into the pit.

It was met with equal thunder from below. Starbolts poured out of the pit like tracer rounds from an old World War !! fighter plane. They pounded the falling rocks mercilessly into powder and what evaded them was raked to pieces by eyebeams.

Cyborg and Robin joined in, putting everything they had into breaking apart the deadly projectiles before they could hurt their friends.

For her part, Raven gathered what was left of her battered soul-self into a concentrated plane, angled to deflect boulders from Robin and Cyborg instead of catching them. Feeling more tired than she'd ever been, she floated down between them and dropped to a knee. White light poured from her eyes and mouth as she fought to maintain the shield just a bit longer.

She could do it. She had to. Once Starfire returned with Beast Boy, all that remained was phasing through the rock to safety.

Then came the noise; a low rumble and persistent grinding that seemed to come from everywhere at once. The ground shook. Cracks raced up the walls. She realized with horror what was happening: the mountain was coming down and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

TT^TT^TT

Reaching the bottom of the pit wasn't the problem. Finding Beast Boy, however, was. The bottom of the pit was ankle deep in a moist slurry from where Aionor had apparently washed the stone chips and dust from the swarmers' efforts in digging out the cavern away. There were slats in the side walls to let to flow out to somewhere, but the floor wasn't angled enough to let it all drain away.

Add to that the debris from the previous collapses and the lingering dust, and Starfire was forced to pick over fallen stonework before she found him.

When she did find him, he looked surprisingly well. The shattered stone around him told the tale: he was still the Beast when he hit the ground and reverted when the impact knocked him out.

“Friend Garfield!” She exclaimed, flying to him. Finding him was enough of a relief that she forgot Robin's rules about real names on missions. Not that there was anyone to hear anyway. Just as she reached him, she heard Raven shout and then the rumble of falling stone.

Without a second thought, the stood over Beast Boy, raised her arms, and unleashed everything she had straight up.

It felt like she was firing forever, but still the rocks came. It finally occurred to her that she wasn't going to win this situation on the offensive. She had to reach the others and that meant flying up through the granite storm above her.

“My apologies, Friend Garfield.” She said, hitching her foot up under his ribs. She took a breath and kicked upward, lifting him up so she could grab hold of him with one arm. As soon as he was secure, she lifted off. With one hand, she continued to fire upward ahead of her.

It was tough going; some boulders were too large for her to break apart one handed, and she had to dodge, often having near misses with other rocks.

Halfway up, however, she heard the mountain shudder and saw a shard of stone the size of a small house falling toward them. It was too big to dodge, far too big to break through. It would strike them and crush them. And there was nothing she could do about it.

Fear and hopelessness almost made her lose flight, but then inspiration struck her as a bolt from the blue.

Still holding Beast Boy in one arm, she turned and flew straight down again. She dredged up every angry thought she'd ever had-- because she was going to need the biggest, most potent starbolt she'd ever produced.


	27. Out of the Dust

_ The first rays of the sun came down, made visible as they shone through the dust in the air, and settled on rolling dunes of what appeared to be gray sand. _

 

_ One particular dune began to shift, and after the sound of muffled shouts, a green gloved hand broke from the mound, grasping skyward like the opening scene of a terrible cliché zombie movie. It flexed for a moment before pressing down and helping haul its owner out into the air. _

 

_ Robin was stained gray from head to toe from the dust and he gasped loudly as he finally found fresh air. The gasp turned into a coughing fit and he collapsed onto his belly, coughing up more sand and desperately trying to clear his lungs. _

 

_ The lay there for a while, trying to figure out just what the hell happened. _

 

_ He remembered Raven flying down to him and Cyborg, remembered her raising the shield... _

 

_ And then he remembered the mountain coming down. And the colossal boulder that dropped into the pit. His stomach turning as the analytical part of his brain told him that not even Starfire could break through that safely. And then everything started going black.  _

 

_ Not from him slipping into unconsciousness, but literally going black; overshadowed by Raven's out of control soul-self. Rocks were ground to powder all around them and the shield faltered. At some point, Cyborg tackled him to the ground just as Raven let loose, and then... sand. Everywhere. _

 

_ He raised a gloved hand to his face, felt the grit and taste on his tongue. His training was nothing if not extensive: Bruce firmly believed that he could defeat anything if her were prepared, after all, and he deduced the composition: largely granite. Granite reduced to a fine grit. _

 

_ Tentatively, he looked upward toward where the sunlight was streaming down. _

 

_ He saw exactly what he was afraid he'd see: The top of the cavern was gone. The top of the mountain was gone. And the hole bored through it looked vaguely like a bird in flight. He only needed one guess what kind of bird it was. _

 

_ He caught movement out of the corner of his eye; blue in a field of dark gray. Turning, he confirmed that yes, it was Raven, kneeling while facing away, hood drawn up, cloak wrapped tightly around her. With her accounted for, he looked around for Cyborg and found him sitting atop one of the tallest dunes, shaking sand out of one of his detached legs. _

 

_ Cyborg looked more annoyed than anything, so Robin decided that Raven needed more of his leadership at the moment. Getting to his feet, he dusted himself off as best he could and half walked, half slid down the side of his dune to where Raven sat. _

 

_“ Raven.” He said, trying to sound firm and in control._

 

_ No answer. _

 

_ He leaned over to get a look at her face. _

 

_ She had been crying. Raven Didn't Cry, but she'd been having a good go at it. Her eyes were red and puffy, telltale streaks of salt traced irregular lines down her cheeks, and she was biting her lip so hard he thought it might start to bleed. Worst of all, she was trembling. _

 

_ Robin followed her gaze and found that they were at the edge of a deep depression: the pit, now filled in with sand and debris. Spars of shattered stone and the tops of boulders poked through the thick covering. And there was no sign of Starfire or Beast Boy. _

 

_ Logic betrayed him. IF they were alive and beneath that, he knew, Raven's empathy would find them. The state Raven was in told him that wasn't so. _

 

_ And that was the last straw. Robin was the disciple of the Bat, a natural born leader, and tougher than most men twice his age. But he was still human, still a teenager. And as far as he knew, he'd just lost the love of his life. He remembered this feeling. It was the feeling he got when he head about Jason. No, worse than that. It was the same feeling he got when her heard that Barbra was shot. _

 

_ She'd survived, confined to a wheelchair, but at the time, he didn't know that. All he heard were the words 'Joker' 'Barbara' and 'shot'. Just like then, it was as if all the energy came out of him. His knees went out and he dropped to kneeling, arms at his sides. _

 

_ Then a deep, confident voice cut through it all. _

 

_“ If y’all are done with the drama, let's get to the rescue.”_

 

_ Cyborg strode right past them and started climbing down into the depression. _

 

_“ Cyborg, you don't understand.” Robin said, holding up a hand to stop him. “They're...”_

 

_“ Don't say it Rob. You know you're wrong and you know how much you hate bein' wrong.”_

 

_ Raven spoke up, her pure monotone back in force, but it was ruined by the telltale songs of her earlier crying. “I can't feel them. That means they're gone and it would be meaningless to--” _

 

_“ Bull.” Cyborg cut her off. “All you can feel is feelings, right?” She nodded. “Right. And if they're knocked out, they're not gonna be feeling anything. And before you say something about all this rock, just remember: Star's had buildings and starships dropped on her. BB can shrink down microscopic and not be crushed at all. Maybe if it was you two down there, yeah, I'd be worried, but not them.”_

 

_ Raven withdrew further into her cloak. “Even if there was a chance, I can’t use my powers. I'm completely drained. I... lost control for a while there and even my inner demon stopped being able to function.” _

 

_ Cyborg blew out an angry breath. “You don't wanna talk about 'drained' to me.” He opened the screen protector on his arm, showing that his power level was down to two bars. “We got jacked by your ex before I could recharge. But I'm gonna work til I stop workin'. No powers? Then use your dang hands!” _

 

_ When they didn't immediately respond, Cyborg huffed irritably and stomped over to the nearest exposed rock. Reaching down, he took hold of it and, visibly straining, started to move it aside. _

 

_“ He's right.” Robin finally said. “About everything. About how tough both of them are... and about how we can't give up. Raven, let's get to work.” She didn't reply, but when he went to stand, so did she. The two of them worked their way down the treacherous slope of the depression, skidding on the sand as they went._

 

_ Just as they reached Cyborg, however, their communicators let out the familiar tones they all knew by heart. _

 

_“ Ha!” Cyborg said proudly. “Told y’all Do the honors, Rob, I think there's a pretty lil' redhead that wants ta talk to ya.”_

 

_ Robin drew out his comm. Before he could open it, something bumped him from behind. Only his training kept him from starting as Raven entered his peripheral vision, leaning over his shoulder to better see the communicator. Fighting down his fight or flight reflex, he hit the answer button. _

 

_ Not the redhead he was hoping for. _

 

_ TT^TT^TT _

_ Much like Kryptonians, Tamaranians were empowered by Earth's yellow sun. So t was the first touch of sunlight through the trees that roused Starfire. _

 

_ And though it didn't heal all her aches and bruises, it made her feel good all around, which in turn inspired the boundless confidence that gave her strength and durability. At last, Starfire was able to wake, shaking off terrible dreams of forgetting her friends and being inappropriately involved with Speedy and Red X. _

 

_ Reality wasn't much better, if less degrading. She remembered Aionor and the mountain. She remembered her desperate reasoning: the water used to sluice the pit had to drain somewhere. So she lit a starbolt and with Beast Boy in tow, flew straight down. _

 

_ They ended up drilling directly into an underground river. _

 

_ And that explained why some of her stomachs and two sets of lungs were upset. _

 

_“ Ack! Ack!” She coughed off to the side, belching up several gallons of frigid cave water before finally a foot long cave fish was ejected. None the worse for wear from its time swimming in a bit of bizarre, alien anatomy, it flopped around until providence landed it in the large pool Star was lying beside._

 

_ The pool was fed by a waterfall bubbling up from deep within the mountain. Really, the whole area was beautiful now that she had a good look at it, especially in the early morning. _

 

_“ Star? You okay?”_

 

_ The same couldn't be said for Beast Boy. He on his belly a few feet from her. Soaked through, his hair hung limply on his head and his ears drooped so much they looked like they were melting. As he spoke, he opened on bloodshot eye to look at her. It hasn't been a pretty night for him. _

 

_ Starfire reassured him with a winning smile. “I am most well, Friend Garfield. My thanks.” _

 

_ He winced at the pure enthusiasm. “You... think the others are okay?” _

 

_ That's what she'd been trying not to think about. Looking up the mountain, she tried to remember is Mount Jump used to have a proper peak, or if it always had a billow cloud of dust at the top. _

 

_“ Of course they are well. They are with Robin and Robin would never allow harm to come to any of our friends.” She floated over to him and patted him on the head in a sisterly fashion. “Rest now, Friend, and before you can even think, we shall all have a most joyful reunion.”_

 

_ No sooner had she said this than her communicator chimed in with the official Titans tone. _

 

_“ Dude! I think fast.” Beast Boy grinned and tried to sit up so he could see the screen. “Hurry up and answer, Star. Don't wanna keep your boyfriend waiting.”_

 

_ Starfire grinned and helped him up so he could see before hitting the answer button. _

 

_ TT^TT^TT_

 

_ Robin and Starfire were never the kind of couple that finished each other's sentences or shared a lot of generic commonalities. They never even played the 'what are you thinking? Lets both say on the count of three' games. _

 

_ Which made it all the more a shame that they were too far from each other for anyone to notice that they had the exact same reaction to the image that appeared on their comms: _

 

_“ Control Freak?!”_

 

 


	28. Aww Freak Out!

“Yes!” said Control Freak, narrowing his eyes in a way that he hoped looked dramatic. With the dark circles under his eyes, hard won from many late nights maintaining his various fan sites and watching po... orly dubbed anime, he looked more tired than anything else.

“It is I, Control Freak! Nemesis to the Teen Titans, King of Cable, Baron of Broadcast, Regent of Reception, Nabob of Netflix, Hero of Hu--”

“Shut the hell up!” Cyborg bellowed. “We got way more important things to do than come over and stomp your couch potato butt. Granted, ya did help us out at the video store, and I'll admit the whole thing you did to Titans East was fun ta watch 'cause it wasn't me... and god bless ya for streaming the Tournament of Heroines...”

Raven glared at him and he cut himself off. They didn't talk about that incident. On pain of torture.

“But anyway, we've gotta save our friends, so get off the channel in case--”

Control Freak snorted. “Save your friends? You mean Starfire and Beast Boy? I'm looking at 'em right now.”

“What.” Said Robin, not trusting the geeky villain at all.

“Yeah, I 'jacked your communicator frequency. They're on the line. Hold on.” Control Freak picked up his remote and hit Split Screen. Starfire, with Beast Boy perched on her shoulder as a parrot suddenly appeared in the right half of the screen.

“Robin!” Star shouted. “You and the others are unhurt! This is most glorious!” She was so happy that she did a spin in the air, making Beast Boy dizzy.

“Glad to see you too, Star.” Robin sounded calm, but inside, a part of him that had been turning to stone from the very idea of losing her softened.

“I hate to break this up – 'cause it's adorable – but I did call for a good reason.” Control Freak interrupted.

“Like I said before.” Cyborg grit his teeth. “We ain't got time to mess with you now.”

“But I already found your friends.” Control Freak pointed out.

“Well you ain't found the crazy sorceress girl or her giant dragon boyfriend.” Cyborg said, folding his arms. “And they kinda talk precedent.”

Control Freak grabbed a soda from offscreen and took a long pull through the straw. “I don't know anything about any sorceress, but I'm pretty sure I found your dragon. That's why I called: I was wondering where you all were. I mean Titans vs. Dragon? The first time was great, this time it's gonna be epic. Especially since he's gone all 'Guards! Guards!' about it.”

Cyborg sighed. “I know I'm gonna regret this, but what the heck is 'Guard! Guards! ?”

“It's a Discworld book.” Said Raven.

“Only one of the best comedy series in like ever!” Beast Boy added.

The others fell silent, staring at the two of them.

Raven wished she could go hide n the pit under all the stone. And yet, she couldn't stop herself from asking, “What?”

Robin spoke for everyone, looking to Raven first. “You read a comedy?” Then he looked at Beast Boy on the screen. “And you... read?”

“I am more shocked that they have done the reading of the same book.” said Starfire, halfway between bewilderment and shipping nirvana.

Raven backed away from the screen, folding her arms and looking away. “Pratchett is a master of social satire as well as deconstructing common literary tropes across all genres.”

Beast Boy, for lack of appendages in parrot form, fluffed his crest and was glad he couldn't blush. “I... just think they're funny.”

Rolling his eyes, Robin looked back at Control Freak. “As dire an importance as this conversation has, can you please explain what you meant?”

“I can't believe you haven't read it.” Control Freak scoffed. “I wouldn't take Batman for the kind of guy that lets his protege skip the classics.”

“Just get to the point.” Robin growled.

“Okay, that was VERY Batman.” Control Freak flinched. “Okay, so in the book, a dragon comes to Ankh-Morpork and takes over, including living in the royal palace.”

“So that means...” Robin gasped. “The tower!”

Control Freak nodded. “Not only that, but he's set up some kind of barrier around the city.”

This snapped Raven right out of her awkward discomfort. She was once again leaning past Robin to look at the screen. “He's protecting himself so he can gather his strength. That's why w were lured out here: even if everyone didn't die in the cave-in, we'd be locked outside the barrier while he recovered his strength.”

“Can you get us through that?” Robin asked and immediately knew it was the wrong thing to ask. “Once you've rested, I mean.”

“I doubt it.” She admitted. “I mean, if I had my books, it wouldn't be a problem for me, but they're inside the barrier.”

Robin scowled. He wanted to get inside as soon as possible to get reconnaissance done. But reality was closing in. The other were run down, all but Starfire, now that she had sun and the joy of knowing they had survived. “Alright, I guess we'll make camp here and figure out how to get into the barrier tomorrow.”

“Um, hello?” Control Freak waved his remote. “Hey. Yeah, you remember me?”

“OH. Right. Thanks for letting us know, I guess.”

Control Freak growled in frustration. “No, I mean, 'remember me: the guy that totally teleported through all your defensive systems when your second stringers were house sitting'?”

“And promptly got your butt whooped.” Cyborg mumbled.

“Be that as it may,” Control Freak glared at him. “I'm the guy with the super remote. I could totally get you in right now. All I ask is that I get to watch you fight Raven's ex-dragon.”

“How in the hell do you kn--” Raven started.

“Also, I want a communicator.”

“There's absolutely no way I'm making you an honorary Titan.” Robin fumed. “Besides, we've already had enough trouble with our communications falling into enemy hands.”

“Oh yeah, good point.” said Control Freak, who was trying not to call attention to his involvement in that. “Alright then, I want a Robin costume.”

“I... Ugh!” Robin recoiled form the screen as a mental image struck him right between the eyes. And yet, it was their best chance to get back into Jump city. “Fine. But never—and I mean NEVER—let me see you wearing it.”

“Deal!” the nerd with the best remote in the world aimed his clicker and suddenly their world was static. It only lasted a few seconds, which was a few seconds too long for all of them, and when it ended, they were in Control Freak's apartment.

They might have expected a stinking den of decay, some sort of pizza spattered man-cave to rival Beast Boys. If they did, they forgot his name.

The place was small: kitchen, living room and dining room all in one with doors branching off to the bedroom and bathroom. And it was a Mecca of organization. Three large book cases held neat rows of DVD and computer game cases with plastic tubs in the corner marked as containing miniatures, battle maps and board games. Nothing had a speck of dust on it, and the floor was freshly vacuumed. There was, of course, a massive plasma screen in front of the couch, networked to not only a Gamestation, but a media center PC.

Control Freak might not know how to dress, but he knew how to keep house.

The geek himself was standing by the couch, looking shocked that the Titans were actually in his home.

Robin instantly fell into a fighting stance. “Why did you bring us here?!”

With nothing else to protect himself with, Control Freak hid behind his couch. “Where else should I have sent you? To your tower where the giant dragon's hanging out?”

A beat passed as Robin tried to come up with more justification for his paranoia. Finally, he dropped his stance. “Alright then.”

Beast Boy hopped off Star's shoulder and resumed human form, rocking on his feet. “Does this mean we can finally get some sleep?”

Control Freak shrugged. “Sure, go ahead. It won't be a cool fight if you're all tired.”

“Good.” said Beast Boy and immediately passed out. He hit the floor hard, but it didn't wake him up.

The other Titans paused to stare at their snoring comrade.


	29. Le Freak? Tres Chic.

“Oh, but they are quite cute like this, are they not.” Starfire pouted.

“I'm not saying they aren't, but if she wakes up and they're like that, she might destroy the entire apartment.” Robin warned.

They were the only ones left awake in the apartment, despite it being eight in the morning. The battle with Malchior and then Aionor had gone on all night, leaving everyone bone weary, not just Beast Boy. After he passed out, Control Freak, in an uncharacteristic bout of generosity, offered to let them crash there, citing wanting to see them at their best when they fought Malchior.

Even knowing Control Freak's tendency toward spectacle, Robin didn't trust him, so despite how incredibly tired he was, he was staying up.

Which was a good thing for Beast Boy's long term well being.

With everyone else either asleep, recharging, or glaring unwaveringly at the door to Control Freaks' bedroom, Starfire, who could run the rest of the day as long as the sun was shining, had gotten bored. For reasons Robin couldn't guess at this necessitated 'arranging' their two friends on the couch with Raven leaned against Beast Boy with his arm draped around her.

That would have been bad enough, but Starfire's idea of 'around' when it came to arm placement was what anyone else would call 'second base'.

Robin carefully lever Beast Boy's arm to safety with the end of his quarterstaff, all the while doing his best to ignore the expertly deployed pout on the face of his girlfriend. As a compromise, he didn't move Raven from where she was. Not that that would have been advisable in the first place; frankly he was shocked that Star was able to move her without waking her in the first place.

“But when we watch the films of romance, we often--” Starfire protested, but Robin raised a gloved hand.

“That's us, Star. With these two, it's different.” That sort of shocked even him. He, the heir to the Bat-mantle was more well adjusted than someone. And in a more healthy relationship to boot. Not that he'd know a healthy relationship from a smoldering hole in the ground, growing up as party to Bruce and Selena's 'dance'.

Starfire might have strange customs, but at least she wasn't a criminal. 

…Anymore.

The city had forgiven her the damage when she arrived after she helped save them from the Gordanians.

Just like Selena had been pardoned multiple times for...

Dear god, was he turning into his father?

A gentle orange hand patted his shoulder. “Robin, I can tell that you are very tired. Please, rest. I will watch over our friends and ensure that the Control Freak does not commit the hijinks or the shenanigans while you sleep.”

Robin shook his head, trying to rid himself of the tiredness. It wasn't working. That goofy line of thought was proof enough that he really needed forty winks. Maybe eighty. He let Star lead hm to the other end of the couch and didn't resist as she laid him down, resting his head in her lap.

In no time, he drifted off.

TT^TT^TT

Waking up past three made him feel ashamed. Waking up after Beast Boy of all people made him want to crawl into a hole and never face Bruce again. Robin sat up, frowning at the absence of Starfire, but somewhat vindicated in seeing that fellow early riser, Raven was still sleeping. Beast Boy had somehow escaped her and was sitting, as a lemur, on the back of the couch.

Before he could fully take stock of the room, there was a cup of coffee inches from his face, beckoning him to wakefulness with its aroma and promise of life giving caffeine. He hardly had to look up to know it was Starfire. Her cooking was probably a war crime, but the girl knew coffee.

“Good morning.” He croaked with a wan smile and accepted the drink.

“Glorious day!” she replied exuberantly, only mitigating herself enough to keep from waking Raven. “We have all survived and now that we are rested, we are ready to kick the booty of that venomous claraouche, Aionor, yes?”

He'd never heard that one before. Nonetheless he nodded. “Right. But we'll need a plan. Malchior proved it last night; he's too powerful for a head-on assault and Aionor will definitely be ready for us if we try to sneak into the tower.

“Siccing the defense system's out of the question too.” Cyborg said from the kitchen. That explained why Robin smelled sausage cooking. “I did some remote recon. Magic baddie or not, she knew enough to take out all the remote access points in the tower – I'd have to be inside to get control back. The only thing I can do now is raise the T-ship. I can't even establish an uplink to my car!”

Manly tears streamed down his face at the thought o his beloved car in the hands of the enemy.

Beast Boy jumped off the back of the couch and scrambled over to the table. After inspecting the spread, he shifted back to human form.

“Dude! There's nothing here that I can eat!”

Cyborg made a face at him and pointed. “Quite whining grass stain, I made ya some oatmeal.”

“Oatmeal with MILK in it.”

“What's wrong with milk?”

“Duuuuude, vegetarian!”

“Milk's not meat.”

“It comes from cows.”

“That don't make it meat. Now shut up and eat up. We've got a dragon to stomp, green bean.”

“Guy!” Robin interjected. “We don't have time for this. Or breakfast for that matter. We have to relocate to someplace secure so we can plan.”

Cyborg scratched his head. “Well why can't we stay here? It's clean, Aionor knows nothing about it and best of all, it's breakfast adjacent.” He gestured at all the food he'd cooked.

“No can do, Cyborg.” Robin shook his head. “We're in the belly of the beast here. Control Freak might look harmless and ineffectual, but he's still a villain. Who knows what sort of vile, deadly and inexplicable tortures he's spent the last few hours concocting?”

Just then the door to Control Freak's room opened and he exited with the earbuds of a waterproof mp3 player in his ears and a slight bounce to his step. Instead of his usual outfit and long coat, he was in a bath robe that looked suspiciously like Jedi robes with tribble fuzzy slippers. He had an official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy towel over one arm and was singing off-key into a bath brush made to look like the Which King's mace from the Lord of the Rings films.

“I can't refute 'cause she's so cute/And so I suck my belly in/X-23 and Hellion, odd couple, to be kind/She's in my heart and in my mind/And now she's in my rhym...”

It slowly dawned on him that he was not alone in his living room. Very slowly, as if hoping that by doing so he could avoid all of this, he opened his eyes.

Yes, it was all coming back to him now. He stayed up late the night before, moderating his fan site, then decided to top the night off with watching some local TV. Except the wonderfully terrible B movie he was watching got preempted by the Titans fighting Malchior and somehow that led to him letting them crash at his apartment.

And now they were staring at hm while he made his way to the shower.

“Eep.” Was all he could say before bolting for the bathroom door.

He almost made it, he really did. But then a black glowing wall interposed itself between him and safety. There was a noise like a coconut hitting a brick wall and suddenly he found himself looking up at violet eyed death.

“Since when are you awake?” Cyborg goggled. Neither he, nor any of the others had seen her move from the couch.

“I've been awake since someone turned into a squirrel and let me fall on my nose on the couch.” She said dryly.

“It was a lemur, thank you.” Beast Boy groused, still scowling at his oatmeal.

“Whatever.” She dismissed him. “What matters is that you,” She used her powers to lever Control Freak up to standing, then bind his arms and legs, “Know way more than anyone possibly could.”

One thing Control Freak wasn't was a good liar. “Heh... I have no idea what you mean.”

“Malchior. You knew his name. What he did you me. No one but the team knew what happened that night. And someone had to tell the Brotherhood about him for them to summon him like they did in Paris.”

“I... might have said something...” Control Freak squeaked.

“Come to think of it, he knew about Sarasim too.” Cyborg said. “Back at the video store, you mentioned her AND the ink cat girl BB almost made out with in Japan.”

“You promised we'd never speak of that again!” Beast Boy complained.

“What he knows isn't important.” Raven continued, her gaze boring into the captured and helpless nerd. “I want to know how and who.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is Nrrrd Grrrl by MC Chris and you should check it out.


	30. Watchers on the Fourth Wall

Raven bore down on Control Freak,managing to tower over him without her feet ever leaving the floor. “You.” She said, her voice bubbling with dangerous rage, “Are going to tell me what I want to know. Right now.”

The hapless geek squirmed uselessly against the adamantine bonds of Raven's soul-self. He knew he was caught and if he didn't give her the truth, he was in for new and amazing landscapes of pain. He just hoped she accepted the truth.

“Okay, okay.” He gasped as the soul-self crushed in. “It's my remote.”

“Your remote?!” That only seemed to make her more angry. “The feeble toy you carry around lets you spy on us?” She lifted him over her head with her powers, shaking him violently.

“Raven!” Robin rushed over to her and clamps a hand on either shoulder. He found himself looking into pure white eyes. “Calm down. You can't get any answers out of him if you kill him.”

The suggestion that she might actually kill Control Freak first mad her grin a cruel, fangy grin. Then it hit her the Rage was very close to taking over again and the bubbling anger within her turned to horror and shame. Her eyes flashed back to normal and her soul-self dissolved, dropping Control Freak non-too gently on his backside.

“Sorry.” She muttered, turning away. “It's been a very trying month.” Another hand rested lightly on her shoulder. She looked up expecting Robin, but instead found Beast Boy. He offered a weak, apologetic smile. He knew precisely why it was a bad month instead of a bad day and her empathy told her he wanted to make amend. She nodded in response, not ready to say any more so soon after her encounter with Aionor.

“Don't mention it.” Control Freak got to his feet and rubbed his aching rear. “I—” He found that he was face to face with an irate Robin. “You... want an explanation don't you?” Robin nodded, managing to embody everything truly scary about his mentor.

“Right. Okay.” Control Freak leaned back against the bathroom door. “First of all, it's not spying. Not really. It doesn't like let me watch the girls shower or anything.”

“Not that he hasn't tried.” Cyborg mumbled, making Beast Boy snicker.

“Hey! I'm not some kind of pervert.” Control Freak sniffed. “Anyway, it turns out that if I use the remote on my TV, it gives me really weird shows. Like things that happen in real life, only cut together like a TV show, or some kind of alternate realities. Like there's one where it's you and Batman in a world where whenever you punch someone, a written sound effect flies up from the screen.” He informed Robin. “And another where you and Kid Flash and an Aqualad who totally isn't the Aqualad I've seen are part of a covert ops team.”

“Well this certainly took a turn for the weird.” Raven noted.

“Anyway,“ Control Freak continued, “That how one of the episodes went: Raven was trying to read a book, everyone kept interrupting her. Then you fought Kardiac, and when you got back, the book started flirting with her.”

Raven blushed violently. “That wasn't an 'episode' that happened!”

“Exactly.” Said Control Freak. “So that's how I know. That how I know everything about you guys. It's why I'm such a huge fan.”

“Fan?!” Exclaimed Cyborg. “You've tried to kill us like three times!”

Control Freak snorted. “Nah, that's all kayfabe. I just wanted to get to fight you. Chicks dig villains after all.”

“Really?” asked Beast Boy.

“Pfft. Yeah. You should see the fan mail even Dr. Light pulls down whenever he's in jail. And Fang? Forget about it. Kitten broke up with him over some of the stuff these girls send.”

Starfire suddenly looked bashful. “Then it is true that women do send the undergarments to celebrities via the earthly parcel delivery system?” Control Freak nodded. “In that case, I am very sorry for the things I called you last week, Robin.”

Control Freak raised an eyebrow to Robin. “None of your business.” Robin growled. After the fifth such incident, he'd asked Cyborg to build a monitoring device to separate out those packages. Apparently it could be fooled if the object in question was edible.

Clearing his throat, Control Freak switched gears. “Um, by the way, that hug at the end? And what BB said? Very cute. Totally the reason I—OW!” He was slammed hard against the bathroom door by Raven's soul-self.

“You have no right looking in on our private lives!” She shouted.

“Our private..” Robin muttered. “Wait, Raven, stop. This is important!” The moment she let go of Control Freak, her grabbed him by the front of his robe and leaned in close. “Do you know who I am?”

Control Freak gagged as his grip cut off part of his air. “Sh-should I give you the answer that won't make you hurt me, or the truth?”

Robin dropped him, letting him slide down the door before glaring down at him. “How many people know?”

“That? You think I'd tell anyone That?” Control Freak asked in a panic. “If people knew who you were, they'd know who Batman is. Then the whole Bat-family would be completely screwed!”

“Wouldn't that be exactly what you, as our self titled nemesis, would want?” Raven floated over to join Robin in delivering the death glare.

Control Freak shivered. “What? No! Look, I might be your nemesis, but I'm also your fan. I don't want to see any of you die. I don't want to see anyone die. And they totally would if they knew who Robin really is.”

“Did you not help the Brotherhood?” Starfire queried, poking her head up over Robin's shoulder. “Many would have perished if the Brain's plan succeeded.”

“Well I didn't know it was like that when I joined.” Control Freak huffed. “They were freezing people instead of killing them after all. And once things got going... well you don't say 'no' to the Brain. He's vicious!”

Robin folded his arms. “You're not going to convince us that you're an innocent in all this. Now back to the subject; are you sure no one else has seen this?”

“I never said that.”

“What?”

Control Freak shook his head. “You asked if anyone knew your secret identity. But the stuff I saw about your lives here and now? Well it never reveals your identities.”

Raven's teeth clenched. “Who. Knows?”

Suddenly interested in looking anywhere but the Titans, Control Freak stared at his index fingers as he poked them together nervously. “I... kinda showed them to my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” Cyborg bellowed. “Man, you mean you weren't making this internet girlfriend up? She's real?”

“Of course she's real!” said Control Freak defensively. “We met on the fan forum. She's almost as big a fan of you guys as I am. She watched everything like five times. Come to think of it, the episode with the dragon was one of her favorites.”

That last revelation hit everyone else in the room like a cannonball.

“Oh no...” Beast Boy groaned.

“It can't be.” added Cyborg.

Robin palmed his face. “That would explain so much...”

It turned out that Starfire was the first to gather the bravery to ask the important question. “Please, this girl who is your friends; what is her name?”

Control Freak shrugged. “I... don't actually know. We only really met each other online. I just know her screen name.”

“And her name of the screen is?”

“Hard to pronounce. Aye-oh-nore? I think that's it.”

“So that how she knew so much!” Cyborg concluded. “You showed her everything she needed.”

This only served to confuse Control Freak. “What? You know her? That is so cool. Wonder why she didn't tell me.”

“Dude...” Beast Boy's ears drooped and his eyes were filled with sympathy. “You got played.”

All humor drained from Control Freak's face. “What do you mean?”

Robin snarled in his throat. “He means that Aionor is the one that's been playing hell on this team. And it turns out that you being so stupid as to think she fell for you has put everyone on this team in mortal danger. Thanks to everything she had access to, all the knowledge she had of us, she came within a hair's breadth of killing all of us! I... I don't even know what I'm going to do with you! Even when it looks like you're doing good, you're still dangerous!”

A door slammed, causing all of them to jump.

All eyes flew from Control Freak only to find the one of their number was missing.

“Beast Boy...” Raven murmured. She'd been feeling his guilt mounting during the entire tirade and yet she'd been so focused on Control Freak that she neglected to do for him what he'd just finished doing for her. Some friend she was. The spike of depression caused Control Freak's towel to fly apart into shreds.

Robin was distracted from watching the door by the fact that Cyborg and Starfire glaring daggers at him.

“Did I miss something?”

Cyborg shook his head sadly. “Everything you just said to Freak? You coulda been sayin' it to B.”

“He also did the falling for the Aionor.” said Starfire, tears welling in her eyes. “Because she disguised herself as Raven. She was able to obtain his access codes in this way.”

Robin sputtered in shock. “How did I not know this?”

“Because it was a private matter. He feared that you would not understand.” Starfire supplied. “I helped him by deleting the video of Aionor...” She hesitated.

“I know about it Starfire.” Raven told her sullenly before turning to Robin. “The video was of Aionor seducing him. As me.”

Before Robin could ask what he was sure would be a pertinent but highly uncomfortable question, Cyborg stepped in. “Little guy's been broken up about what happened going on three weeks now. This wasn't the kinda thing he needed to hear.”

Grunting in frustration, Robin smacked himself in the head. “Of course! That's what's been bothering him. He considered that to be cheating on you, Raven.”

Raven just goggled at him, jaw slack. Behind her, the couch was surrounded by black energy and hurled violently into the ceiling.


	31. Face What You Can't Say

The couch hit the floor with a loud thud that cut off all other discussion in the room save the horrified whimpers of Control Freak as he bore witness to the wanton abuse of his furniture. Everyone else was staring at Robin, slack jawed.

“This is what you believed, Robin?” Asked Starfire. Her eyes glimmered with joy as she read entirely too much into Robin's opinion.

“Man, and you call yourself the sidekick of the World's Greatest Detective?” Cyborg gawked at Robin as if it might be time to get the glove and check for batteries.

Robin raised an eyebrow at his friends and their dumbfounded expressions, and raised it even higher at the mortified look on Raven's face. “What?”

Finally, Raven got her wits about her enough to speak, or rather to yell in the 'not really raising her voice' way she had of doing it. “What in that over-geled head of yours went walkabout to make you think that Beast Boy and I are, or were in any sense of the word a couple!?”

“Are you saying you're not?” Maybe if he'd sounded confused, it would have helped. But Robin didn't sound confused, he sounded like an older brother teasing a younger sibling about liking someone. Which, in a sense, he was.

All of Control Freak's DVDs went flying off their shelf to rain down over everyone.

“For the love of God, stop doing that to her!” the geeky villain whined, moving quickly to pick up as many as he could.

Raven folded her arms under her breast and looked away with a sniff, ignoring Control Freak entirely. “of course we're not. And we've given you no indication that were are.”

“Oh really?” Robin asked, his tone showing no care for the fate of Control Freak's apartment. “Unfortunately for you, Raven, I AM the junior partner of the World's Greatest Detective, and I know how to read people.”

“Didn't seem ta help you figuring out Star liked ya.” Cyborg whispered, causing Starfire to giggle and Robin to glare.

“In any event.” Robin snarled. “The truth is, you two have given me every indication. In battle, who leaps to your protection most often?” He didn't give her time to answer. “And who is always very quick to return the favor?”

Raven remained stoic. “All of us save each other. You've pulled Cyborg out of danger on more than one occasion. Are you considering leaving Starfire for him?”

“Hey now, this was funny 'til ya'll dragged me into this.” Cyborg protested.

Robin forged ahead regardless. “More to the point, I remember what it was like when Terra was around. Do you think it passed my attention that 'you got control too easily' is a very weak excuse to distrust someone as much as you outright hated Terra?”

“And as it turns out, I was completely justified.” Raven spat.

“Except there was no way for you to know. For any of us to know. But for you, it got personal. I noticed how you drew back into your shell during that time. Beast Boy's always been the only one to get you to open up and spent time with us; lord knows we've all tried, but he's the one that succeeded. I was going to talk to you about it... before it all happened.

“But after that, you're the one that went and talked with him; got him to come out of her room. To be honest, that's when I thought you two first started your relationship: his dumb 'I'm going to make it my mission to make you laugh' thing. And especially how he was looking at you afterward.”

Discomfort wracked her and she backed down. “That wasn't because he liked me.” She whispered. “He heard me say I'd kill her if she dropped that rock on him.”

To her shock, Robin clapped a hand on her shoulder and nodded. “I know. And I know you would have done it too.”

She jerked away from the touch. “You did?! And you let me stay? Do you have any idea how... how dangerous for something like me to have thoughts like that?”

“SomeONE.” he corrected. “And yeah, I do. But that's not demonic. That's human, Raven. We all have very strong reactions to the people we care about being in danger. And the more we care, the stronger the reaction. I have faith that the others would have stopped you from doing something you would regret later.”

For a time, Raven was quiet. When she spoke, she was collected and even once more. “Still, you were wrong. Nothing started back then besides us becoming better friends.”

“Maybe that's all that resulted.” Robin said, losing his teasing tone, but even if you two never admitted it, I think the feelings were there. Why else would you have gotten so upset when he called you creepy? You wouldn't bat an eye if I did that. And Beast Boy was climbing the walls the whole time you were holed up in your room with Malchior. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure he's still more than a little bitter that I'm the one that went into the Pit to save you instead of him. More then he was about the beast fiasco.”

Raven felt her lips twitch, trying to smile. “He shouldn't be. Maybe you went down there, but you wouldn't have lived long enough to do it if he hadn't given me that penny.”

Robin stood back proudly. “So you see how I feel justified thinking there was something between you? It's because there was.”

Something kicked in, old defensive instincts that she couldn't fully control. “No. There wasn't. We never went out, we never did anything a couple would do. Did you ever see us holding hands, or.. or...” She begged herself not to say it, she really tried. “Or kissing!?”

The door to Control Freak's bedroom came off its hinges and snapped in half before being hurled across the room and embedded in the wall.

“My security deposit!” Control Freak moaned.

“Heh... we'll pay for this.” said Cyborg before turning his attention on Raven. “Actually, Rob's got a point. You're... well you. Even if you two were goin' out, would you go around announcing it? Would you get caught dead doin' any kinda PDA? I don't think so.”

“Exactly.” Robin chimed in. “I was working on the knowledge that you would actively work to keep your private life private... and probably threaten to hurt Beast Boy if he didn't go along.”

All this left Raven cold. What did she really think about all this? If she could be honest with herself, she would at least admit that she was closer to Beast Boy than the others and that Robin was correct; that had started right after the revelation of Terra's Judas contract.

But love? Again, being honest, she was too emotionally stunted to know it when she saw it. And Beast Boy... well he was Beast boy. It would take some major revelation to get it through his skull that there was something there. Something he couldn't misinterpret like...

Oh no.

She lifted her head hesitantly to look at Cyborg. “You said...” She had to push herself to ask. “You said that he talked to you right after it happened. I didn't know what happened then but now that I do... what did he say.”

Cyborg scratched his head. Beast Boy said that in confidence and he didn't want to break that. On the other hand, sometimes, the grass stain needed somethings done for him; for his own good. “Well actually... he said what Rob said. That maybe something was there between you for a while.”

His words set Starfire to excited squeeing, but hit Raven like a bolt from the blue. Sure, Robin thinking it was alarming, especially given his talent at reading people. But if Beast Boy thought the same thing... Suddenly, everything made sense. He couldn't face her because the kiss made him realize how he felt about her and made him think she'd just given him proof that she felt the same way.

Except the kiss was a fake and suddenly instead of a fledgling relationship, he found himself in fear of his feelings going unrequited. Add to that the fact that she was an empath and would be able to pick up on that... Knowing Beast Boy, he'd think the whole thing would make her uncomfortable. That's why he threw up so much mental static!

All this time, she'd been worrying over how horrible the last month had been for her...

“None of that is important right now.” She said suddenly, before the words had even really formed in her head. “I have to go find him.”

“No.” Robin cut her off. I'm the one that has to go.” He held up a hand to cut off her protest. “Do you have any idea what to say to him about this whole thing when you find him?”

Raven fell silent, looking sheepish. Would she ever?

Robin nodded. “Besides, I'm the one that dressed him down without knowing it. This has been a long time coming anyway; he already thinks I don't respect him. Time to make sure he knows that's not true.”

“Please,” Starfire asked, “Beast Boy no longer has his communicator. How will you find him?”

“That's easy.” Robin said. “Beast Boy doesn't mope when he feels worthless. He tries to prove his worth by doing what he's good at. I'm guessing that since we don't need a distraction, that'll be recon. And there's only one place we need intel on right now...”

TT^TT^TT

A mosquito flitted in from over the ocean. Thanks to its size, it was almost invisible and even if it wasn't it would be very hard to tell that it was green.

Without pause and without erring, it made its way out over Jump Bay toward Titans Tower.


	32. Recon and Reflections

A green gnat slipped through a tiny leak in the seal around the roof access door of Titan's tower. The stairwell as dark, and his insectile senses didn't locate any nearby warm, bloodd bearing bodies, but he didn't know if Aionor's swarmers even had blood.

He risked changing into a rat and landed softly on the top landing. Those senses were better and this time, he could quickly tell that while the swarmers had been in the stairwell, they hadn't been there in the last hour or so.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he resumed human form and rested his forehead against the cool railing. Now that his panic and hurt was wearing off, this seemed like a dumber idea than usual. It was just... when he heard Robin listing off all those things to Control Freak, Beast Boy felt a cold feeling in his spine that, at any minute, the Boy Wonder would turn around and do the same to him. Then kick him off the team.

It was Beast Boy's greatest fear. More than becoming the Beast and losing himself, more than Soto coming back and taking him to be his pet again, more then any villain they'd ever faced up to and including Trigon. He'd already lost so many people he'd considered his family, and he'd already been kicked off a team he loved once.

Running off with no plan and making a beeline straight for the most dangerous place in Jump probably didn't improve his standing with Robin.

And then there was the entire thing of Raven, probably why he was so on edge. Some how, he'd woken up with her leaning against him – and immediately freaked the hell out. Well, actually the first thing he did was marvel at how pretty she was and how peaceful she managed to look like that. Then he realized that he'd been looking at her for more than a minute without guarding his mind.

At that point, visions of her waking up to those feelings rolling off him and crushing him into a singularity with her soul-self on reflex flashed through his head. And even though he knew she'd never do that, it put him into his usual spastic panic mode.

He sighed. What was he going to do about this? Aionor, whether it was her intention or not, had tricked him into rethinking his relationship with Raven and he'd discovered that it was way different than with the others. And that was okay, because Raven had kissed him and that meant she felt the same way.

Stupid. That should have been the first clue. Raven didn't feel the same way. In fact, she'd confided that she doubted she was even capable. Looking back at those conversations, he realized how scared he'd been that she might be right, even as he insisted that wasn't the case.

Whether it was, or it wasn't she wouldn't feel it for him. He was the dork, the annoyance. Sure, they got along well—very well most of the time, but whenever they had a 'moment' as she called it, he'd feel obligated to push the envelope and ended up ruining it. Who would put up with that?

Eventually, he'd slip and she'd know how he felt and things would be ruined forever. She'd be too uncomfortable to open up to him ever again and he'd be without the one person he could do the same with.

He wasn't sure he could take that again. The others thought it was just a crush, but he was pretty sure he had really loved Terra. Only he wasn't good enough for her either. Only she didn't really return it either. If she had, he was pretty sure she would have chosen him over her powers and Slade. In the end, appealing to her feelings for him haven't worked, only speaking to her sense of self did.

That hurt pretty bad. Then Slade implying she wanted him as a pet had been salt in the wounds.

He was starting to wander if being a pet would be so bad. You got some kind of love out of that, and no one ever got uncomfortable at their faithful dog's devotion. It just seemed so much easier.

Taking another long, drawn out breath, he pushed off the railing. But he wasn't a pet. He was Beast Boy, the Teen Titan and he'd just have to deal with it... though he had no idea how. Coming to the tower was part of it. He might not be worthy of Raven's affections (if that was even possible to achieve), but he could prove that he wasn't just a screw up of a hero.

His powers made him good at a lot of things and a master at several others. Chief among them; recon. The enemy was in their home and the team needed to know what they were doing there.

He shifted into an owl and spiraled down the space in the center of the stairwell on silent wings. People didn't give owls the respect they deserved in his opinion. In addition to having built in, natural stealth and night vision, their faces were dish-shaped to allow them the hearing capacity of a parabolic microphone.

That amazing hearing picked up voices as he glided past the ops level; Malchior and Aionor.

“And you're absolutely certain that they've perished?” Malchior was asking.

Aionor laughed bitterly. “I caused Raven to drop a mountain on them. She might have had enough to save herself or a few of the others, but they were too spread out for even her to grab them all. At the very least, I've softened them up for you.”

“I really wish you could tell me something concrete, Aionor. What we don't know could hurt us. Badly.”

“Stop worrying.” Aionor said breezily and Beast Boy heard her walking around in the room. “The Titans can't beat you without the book even when you've freshly escaped. Now with at least some members missing, they don't have a prayer. And just to make certain, I do have Gizmo building you that trump card in the hanger.”

Beast Boy blinked his huge eyes. Trump card? What now? Wasn't the unstoppable dragon and crazy teleporting girl enough? And how did Gizmo get into this? It's like Aionor was doing the Titans' Villains World Tour or something. Should he be on the look out for Brother Blood and Slade too? Maybe the whole plan was to bring back Trigon; yeah that would be the nice icing on the crap cake of the past month.

“Yes, the tiny foul mouthed one.” Malchior said, bored. “I'm dubious as to his use. Speaking of dubious uses, where is the Puppet King?”

“He has to prepare for the next phase of my plan.” Said Aionor. “I sent him to my house to do it. The Titans will come here when they do come and this keeps him out of the way.”

“I don't like not having an eye on him.” Malchior said. Beast Boy heard his great bulk shifting on the carpet, “And I don't like being left out of these 'phases' of yours. I am not a lackey.”

Aionor huffed. “The plan's worked so far because I'm the only one that knows it. All you need to know is that the next phase involved you and the thing Gizmo is building for you. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to search the Book of Azar for something that will help you regain your powers more quickly.

Malchior protested vehemently, but her footsteps were followed by the opening of the main doors and she was gone.

Silently, Beast Boy flew away from the stairwell door and glided down to the lobby level. After making sure he was hidden under the stairs, he shifted back into his default form to think. So killing them off hadn't been the main plan? Heck, she didn't even seem all that concerned with the idea that they survived.

What was it then? Even hurting Raven (oh, she would pay for that) sounded more like a means to an end than a goal. And now there was another phase involving Puppet King and Gizmo? Even Slade was easier to follow than this.

“Beast Boy.” Someone whispered, causing him to jump, shifting into a porcupine to protect himself. There was a put upon sigh. “Relax, it's me.”

“Robin?” Beast Boy asked, reverting to normal form. “What are you doing here?”

The Boy Wonder emerged from a shadowy corner, motioning for him to keep his voice down. “Giving you back-up for your recon.”

“You knew what I left to do?” Beast Boy whispered.

Robin smirked. “Knowing people comes with the job. Then the smirk faltered. “Except I think I missed my mark earlier. Look Gar,” He never called Beast Boy 'Gar', “I didn't know the whole story. And I mean, I REALLY didn't know the whole story. I'm sorry for everything I said.”

“But you were right.” said Beast Boy. “It was stupid of him to fall for her just like it was stupid of me.”

“No, it wasn't. Naïve, maybe, showing vulnerability, maybe, but not stupid. I misjudged the situation. As you know, I'm not the best guy when it comes to interpersonal relationships.”

“Tell me about it.” Beast Boy mumbled, recalling how very long it took Robin to notice Star's affections.

“Yeah, anyway;” Despite wanting to fix things, Robin didn't want to dwell on this own failings. “I didn't know that you and Raven weren't... together. I didn't realize what that kiss must have meant to you, and now that I think of it, I might have been too hard on Control freak too; how many pretty girls take an interests in him and his hobbies? He's still human, I guess.”

Beast Boy didn't even hear that other part. “Whoa, hold on. What do you mean you didn't know were weren't 'together'? You thought...?”

“Yes.” Robins said sharply. “I've already had this conversation once. Long story short; between your obvious (to me) feelings for her and Raven's privacy issues, I came to the wrong conclusion about what I thought I knew.”

Beast Boy didn't know what to make of that. The World's Greatest Boy Detective thought that, given the evidence, they were a couple. Did that mean something? It probably wasn't the time to ask. He blinked as something hit him. Oh yeah, and there was some sort of doom-machine being built down in the hanger. They should probably do something about that.

“Um... listen.” He said, fully aware of how terribly awkward all this was, “Aionor's got Gizmo here. He's building something downstairs for the next part of her plan.”

Robin's eyes narrowed, partly out of satisfaction at having something to sink his teeth into. “So killing us was just a link in the chain. I hate this kind of villain; reminds me of a less obsessive compulsive Riddler. Let's go.”


	33. Ready

“Crud munching bottle blonde things she can just bat her lashes and make me do whatever?” Gizmo grumbled as he worked, deep in the lowest level of Titans Tower. Sparks flew from his welding torch, burning almost as hot as his impotent rage. “I better be getting' paid for this. Snot lickin' dragon and his pit sniffin' armor. Thinks he's so big.”

“Dude. Is that what I think it is?”

In shadows, near the air vent they'd dropped out of, Robin shushed Beast Boy and pointed. Swarmers were clinging to the walls near the ceiling, their collective bodies making it look like some sort of fungus had taken hold there. Others lurked in ambush at the doors, and a breed they hadn't seen before lurked in the water surrounding the T-ship where it was docked after the last aquatic mission.

Once he was sure the green teen was going to be silent, he nodded. It was exactly what it was. Gizmo had broken down and reconfigured the T-car. The white panels with circuitry beneath blue tinted aluminum oxide that was Cyborg's trademark design style was evident.

Only now it wasn't shaped like a car anymore. The front half of the passenger cabin had been preserved, but now it was held over the floor by a harness, the side panels extended past where the wheels used to be to form a cavity for something large to fit. Something as large as Malchior's rib cage. The tires had been removed and the exposed hover jets in the wheels were now attached to the 'belly' of the armor. The built in sonic cannons and missile pods were also exposed; the cannons placed on turrets set forward of the passenger compartments and the missile pods on extending arms behind. No doubt, many of Cyborgs other innovations were also preserved and modified.

Cyborg was going to flip his lid.

Confusingly, even though he was cursing it, Gizmo wasn't working on the armor. He was fussing over a number of camera drones lined up on his work table. Not even arming them, just welding armor plating to them.

Robin unclipped a spy camera from his utility belt and started taking pictures.

For his part, Beast Boy tugged on Robin's cape and leaned close to his ear to whisper. “So what's the deal with the cameras? We already figured out this morning: no signals in or out thanks to that spell.”

A grave look came to Robin's face. “I'm starting to think that the barrier is just to buy time. This armor covers up all of Malchior's weak points AND remedies his maneuverability issues with the hover jets. Seeing as he's a sorcerer to start with, he might even be able to take on Superman.”

“With Cy's kind of firepower, he could take on the Justice League.” Beast Boy agreed.

Robins' jaw hardened. “Well he's going to have to deal with the Teen Titans first. Cyborg will know how to deal with this now that we know it exists. Come on, we need to get back and make a plan.”

They both turned to find one of the basic type swarmers climbing out of the air vent they arrived by. It whipped its eyeless face toward them and instantly let out a grating trill of alarm.

“Is running a plan?” Beast Boy asked as answering calls came from all over the room.

“Yes.” Robin said. “To the stairwell, we'll escape through the roof.”

The swarmers boiled down the walls to get at them, but they were met by a charging rhino that hit their ranks like an avalanche of muscle. Robin kept to the rear, using his staff to make any attackers think twice about trying to flank him.

Too large to go through the stairwell door, Beast Boy shifted into a pachcephelysaurus to batter down the door.

“We could have locked the door behind us.” Robin scolded. He dashed into the dark stairwell and turned on his heal, ready to defend the door while Beast Boy started up. Instead, a green orangutan grabbed him around the neck and began to scramble up the open space in the center of the stair, using its feet and free arm to reach the railings.

The swarmers came screaming up after them, but by the time they reached the roof, Robin was being carried off by a green pterodactyl. By the time gliders could get to the top, it was too late to catch them; they were lost in the skyscrapers.

TT^TT^TT

Control Freak set the last toppled DvD case back into its rightful place on its shelf and stood back to admire his handiwork. The bookcase was now held together mostly with tape and super glue, but at least it was holding up, unlike the couch, which no longer had legs, thanks to Raven's outburst followed by Cyborg sitting down on it too heavily.

He looked over to find the cybernetic Titan still there, tapping away on his onboard computer with a grim look on his face. Beside him, Starfire was pretending to sip on a bottle of mustard that had been depleted over an hour ago while keeping an eye on her two friends.

Raven sat cross-legged in front of the windows, staring out at the city, deep in thought.

All of that was his fault. Strange, he called himself the Titans' nemesis, he'd fought them on several occasions. But now that he'd actually done damage to them, saw the effect it had on them; it wasn't fun anymore. He wanted to be a villain to be cool. This wasn't cool.

Taking a deep breath, he turned away from the bookcase entirely and faced the Titans. “I--”

“If you're gonna say you're sorry, forget it.” Cyborg cut him off. “Maybe it was a mistake this time, but that don't change all the other times. You don't get a free pass because you feel bad now doesn't mean you're forgiven.”

“I never really thought anyone would get hurt.” Control Freak defended.

“Oh yeah? And I guess ordering candy to eat me alive ain't hurting anyone?” Cyborg rose to his full height. “Or how 'bout making it so every TV in the city put out brain destroying radiation?”

“Look, I had no idea--”

“No, you didn't have any idea, man, 'cause you don't think. You just decide that playing the villain's going to be cool and fun and then you never stop and think of the consequences. What if Titans East couldn't beat your stupid challenges? Do you know how many people could have died? Not to mention helping the Brain.”

Control Freak lowered his head. “You're right, okay?! I wanted to be cool. Important. And I looked at you guys and you're like the coolest ever. But I knew I'd never fit in. Villains don't have to fit in, though, so I figured I'd give it a try. But it hasn't worked out. Everyone laughs at me instead of thinking I'm cool. Even you guys laugh at me, even though you at least think I'm dangerous.”

Cyborg gave him another hard look, then sighed. “Man, the sad thing its, you got no idea. You think any of us fit in? Look at me, I'm half machine.”

“Yeah, and being half machine is really cool.”

“That's what BB said to.” Cyborg muttered. “But you think everyone thinks that way? Maybe they like us now, but we had to work for that. All of us, except maybe Rob. That's what makes it sad, Freak: With that remote of yours, you've got the powers for it. If you stopped and thought about it before you went out and did your villain thing... you coulda been one of us.”

Silence settled over the room. Starfire stopped pretending to drink and was watching them curiously.

“I guess that ship's kinda sailed.” Control Freak murmured. Then he perked up. “Hey. I know I can't say I'm sorry about everything else, but I just had a thought. Me and Ai talked all the time online. If I still have her IP address...“

Cyborg's eye widened. “You could get her address!”

Unable to stay out of the conversation any longer, Starfire flew off the couch joyfully. “If this is true, we will know where the enemy lives. The first important rule of warfare.”

“And that means we can finally blindside her for a change.” Everyone looked up to find Raven standing, silhouetted in the window, a hard look in her eyes.

The door flew open, revealing a panting Robin and Beast Boy. “And we'll use that. Along with what Beast Boy and I just found. Titans: it's time to strike back. Hard.”


	34. Set

Metal groaned, it's loud complaint answered by falling plaster dust from the ceiling. Jump City's storm drains empties out nearby and the constant moisture and chemical runoff hadn't been kind to the metal. It took more muscle than robin expected to force the hatch fully open.

The moment he did, Starfire whooshed past, holding up a starbolt for light. “Xhal!” She said, looking around excitedly. “I am most pleased to finally be allowed to see your bat hole.”

“I'm... not sure if you mean 'bolt hole' or 'bat cave', Star.” Robin forced the door closed behind them, then found the toggle that tapped power from the city grid above for the lights and equipment. Bare bulbs came on overhead and a miniature version of the Titans' crime computer hummed as it booted up.

A stainless steel table dominated the space in the center; its surface covered with forensics equipment. Nearby, there was a cot next to a trunk stocked with medical equipment. A row of roll out lockers took up the far wall. There wasn't a bat symbol or anything else that might hint that this space belonged to a member of the batclan. None of the many that Bruce peppered Gotham with did either.

“Which is correct?” Starfire asked, floating over to examine the things on the steel table. All these years and she still had to stifle laughter at what passed as a means for seeing things on the microscopic scale on Earth. Of course, she tried to never boast; Earth had only cracked the power of the atom half a zarbloq ago.

“Bolthole.” said Robin. He ignored the table to go to the lockers. “It's for emergencies, for example, if the Tower is taken and I need to rearm.”

“But if this is not a bat cave, why would you not tell the team until now?” It was a good question. The Tower had been taken before and he never let on that he had a fallback headquarters.

He focused on dialing the combination on one of the lockers. “There's nothing here for the rest of you.” He said calmly, “The rest of you have powers, but I'm badly outmatched without my equipment.” If he hoped that would get her off the trail, but, of course, it didn't.

“No...” Starfire said in a hushed tone as she looked around. “I believe there is another reason. The same reason that this place feels uncomfortably... familiar.” She turned slowly in the air, taking in the ruthless efficiency and cold, calculated ingenuity. Robin made it all the worse by pulling out the locker, revealing shelves of various explosive discs and birdarangs.

Star's discomfort caused her to lower to the ground. Robin's heart sank. He hated doing that to her. “It looks like a...”

“A Slade base.” Robin finished for her. Unable to look her in the eye, he leaned on the shelf, hanging his head between his shoulders. He did not want to talk about this.

“Friend cyborg says that you hate him so because he is much like and evil version of you.”

“No.” Robin said, trying to keep his words from being cold toward her. “He's wrong. Slade isn't like me. I don't do things because I've seen Slade do it, or because I think like him. He... I learned everything—my attitude, my leadership style, the way I fight, even the way I build a bolthole from one person: Batman.”

He continued to hang his head, but he was aware that Starfire had drifted closer to him. “No, I don't hate slave because he's a dark mirror of me. I hate him because he's... like Batman, the man who's most like a father to me, only twisted toward evil and trying to drag me in that direction as well.”

Then her arms were around him and her sweet voice in his ear. “But you stood firm. Like the Batman, you are...” she struggled for the Earth word, “Intense. But you are good, Robin. Nothing Slade can do will change this.”

“I know.” he said quietly. “I just don' want you or the others thinking this was part of my obsession. This is part of my training: the prepare for anything; to have contingencies ready to fire if one plan fails; to figure out how the enemy thinks and use that to your advantage.”

Starfire fell silent, her arms still around him, but with a nervous stiffness in her posture that his martial senses picked out easily. “What is it Star?”

The alien princess let go of him and moved over to stand beside him against the open locker. “It is just... it occurs to me that this is how the Aionor thinks as well. She has studied us well and anticipated our actions. She used Friend Raven's reactions against her in an attempt to kill us.”

“You're worried that she'll see this coming.” Robin guessed. “And that she'll have a contingency plan in place for it.” Starfire nodded. “Well you don't have to worry. I noticed it as well: Aionor might hate Raven, but she thinks like I do. So I'm doing something I'd never do.”

“And that is?” Starfire asked, still not feeling certain.

“Letting Beast Boy make the plan.” Starfire's jaw dropped. Tamaranian physiology being what it was, this left her jaw literally resting on her chest (once, after Beast Boy showed her Blues Brothers, she's eaten four fried chickens. It took her four bites). Robin ignored the expression. “It makes sense. He needed a confidence boost after all that's happened, and like I said, I needed a tact that Aionor wouldn't see coming.”

“That is not what confused me Robin.” said Star. “It merely electrocuted me to know that Beast Boy chose the teams.” She gave a nervous, guilty look at how blatant she'd been in trying to play matchmaker earlier. “That is to say, would you not be more useful infiltrating rather than distracting? The Tower is still on an island and you cannot fly.”

Robin cracked a rare smile. “Don't worry about that, Star. 'Always prepared' isn't just a motto, it's practically the bat-religion.” He put an arm around her shoulder and hit a button under one of the shelves. A section of the opposite wall started to slowly rise.

“I'll tell you a secret. About Batman.” The wall continued to grind upward and once more, Star stood shocked at what she saw. “At any given time? There are actually three operational Batmobiles.” With a thump that echoed in the space, the wall finished opening. Beyond that portal sat another room, a garage with an R-cycle and an exact replica of Robin's pod on the T-ship.

TT^TT^TT

The sun was starting to get low in the sky and Beast Boy was pacing. It wasn't that he didn't want to have the fight in the dark, it was that he wanted things to hurry up to prevent all sorts of onrushing awkwardness. He glanced over a Raven and found the dark girl meditating in the shadow of an air conditioning duct.

If it had been up to him, he would have gone with Cyborg and avoided this whole, awful, awkward thing. But it wasn't really up to him: he needed to get into the tower and going through the door wasn't going to work again. The team was counting on him, Robin had finally put some faith in him, and he couldn't let a little thing like his stomach trying to escape through his throat stop him from doing what he had to.

He also couldn't let Raven's incredulity stop him, so she wasn't in one the plan any farther than 'get BB into the tower'. She'd say the plan was stupid and be absolutely right. But all the smart moves ended up in Aionor blind-siding them, so maybe stupid was the way to go.

“Where are they?” He complained, not realizing he said it out loud.

“They'll be ready on time.” Raven's voice from behind made him jump.

Beast Boy turned and looked sheepish. “Sorry to interrupt... ya know, your thing. I was just thinking.”

“I wasn't getting much accomplished.” She admitted, standing up from her floating lotus position. “There's just too much on my mind to hope to clear at the moment.”

“Tell me about it.” Beast Boy muttered, turning back to look out over the bay at the tower. “I mean it's not the worst we've been in, or the weirdest; especially for me, you know: Doom Patrol and all. But that doesn't make it any--”

“I wasn't talking about that, Gar.”

“I know.” His ears drooped. “I was just really hoping you were.”

Raven kept her distance. “You... well I wanted you to know that I'm sorry. For how you've had to hide how you felt this past month—you must have pulled up some very painful memories to make your mental chaff so powerful; I'm sorry for that too. And for how I was so focused on how that made me feel that I didn't think about what it must have done to you. And about how she... broke your heart.”

That made him flinch. It was painfully familiar. 'You think you're alone, but you're not' He said that to her the first time Malchior came. And this time...

“Don't worry about it, Rae.” He said quietly, not turning around. “I kinda bought it on myself—like everything else most of the time. I just didn't want to creep your out and I guess I ended up making things worse that way. And... I'm sorry too. This thing with Malchior being back. It can't feel good and you probably haven't had anyone to talk about it with because I've been being a jerk.”

She couldn't argue with that. In the weeks after Aionor originally stole the book, she hadn't been able to open up to the others about her fears about Malchior returning or the old, terrible feelings his specter stirred within. “You've had your own problems.” She said in monotone and immediately regretted it when he flinched.

Beast Boy snarled. Not angry, but like a frustrated animal. “It didn't used to be like this!” He erupted. “It used to be... I mean we talked and... and it wasn't just our own problems. You made me feel better, Rae and I hope I made you feel better too and now, it's like we can't. All I can do is make you feel bad all of a sudden and I hate it!”

He pounded his fist on the railing surrounding the edge of the building, bending it. The Beast was very near the surface in the heat of that moment, but Beast Boy kept it reigned in. Holding back a sob, he glared out at the tower. “It was that kiss. That stupid kiss. It make me think. And you know I'm bad at that, Rae. It got my head all turned around and it ruined everything.”

Raven didn't know what came over her. It felt like twisting the knife, but after Aionor's taunt down in the cavern, she had to hear it from him. “Gar...” No, that was too familiar, somehow far too intimate now, “Beast Boy... how did you feel, really? When you thought it was me?”

“Really happy.” He said before he thought. “I mean... dude, please tell me you didn't hear me say that.”

In the recesses of her hood, Raven blushed. “Cyborg said that you wondered if there hadn't always been something there... between us.”

“Because I'm dumb, duh!” Beast Boy said bitterly. “Like, I should have seen she wasn't you. Even if you did like me and that's be a long shot, you're not the kind of girl that'd just come right out and kiss a guy, even if it is just on the cheek, or let him go kitty form on your lap.”

“You... what?” The air conditioner duct was overshadowed and crushed into a tiny ball of twisted metal.

“Oh.” Beast Boy peeked at the damage he'd done. “You didn't know that part, huh?”

“No.” She said bluntly. “I didn't.” What really got her was how he'd clearly drawn a link to that and shows of affection. She always tossed him away in the past when he did that because she suspected he was just using her lap as a staging ground for some prank.

His ears drooped more at her tone and he looked away. “Yeah, well.”

“What if...” Raven interrupted, shocked by her own boldness at pursuing this. Part of her was still holding out hope that she could just ignore it and it would go away. But another part couldn't let this go. She needed to know, she needed to understand and confirm what it was that was really going on.

There had been so much obfuscation and lying in the past months; Aionor posing as her and manipulating everyone, Beast Boy avoiding her and hiding his feelings, her own continuing self denial. But beneath it all, a seed that had been there all along had sprouted, forced to the surface by the very forces that put it to the test. She needed to know right now, what had grown in that deception.

“What if,” She started again. “You're right? What if there really has been something there all along and the kiss was just what it took for one of us to notice?” 'What if' indeed; she had no idea what to do no matter how he answered.

Beast Boy being Beast Boy, the answer was, “Um...”

They stared dumbly at one another. Neither knew what to do with that bombshell. Raven hadn't actually said that he was right or even agreed. While opening the door, she still forced him to be the one to deal with it and he had just as much of a clue as she did.

She was a demonic half-breed with incredible power. He'd grown up raised by superheroes and day for day had more experience than Robin. But neither of them was up to the task of handling this well.

Finally, Raven spoke up. “I can't say what I feel for sure. I just don't understand it right now. But I'm starting to think that you might be right, but cause it has been different between us for a long time. I just never thought about it. And it looks like you never did either.”

She looked anywhere but at him. “And I can't promise that even if that is how I feel that I'll ever be comfortable with something like a kiss. That's just...”

“Something Raven doesn't do.” Beast Boy supplied quietly. “Yeah, I understand.”

Just at that moment, the familiar tones of the communicator went off. Robin and Starfire were in position. Plan B was also in motion. It was time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, so much to talk about here. Going in order; yes, Aionor is meant to be an evil Robin. Not only from the things Robin mentions, but down to how she treats her 'team' being an evil version of Robin's leadership, to her mission threatening obsession with her nemesis and childhood of tough training.
> 
> Here's the title drop also. 'What Grows in Deception'? I bet you can guess now. It also fits into the theme here of earning your happy ending. If Raven and BB hadn't gone through all this torture, they never would have been forced to consider the nature of their relationship. As the two most emotionally immature Titans, I feel they would need a blunt catalyst to see this.
> 
> And finally, fluff! I know people see the romance tag and want fluff. I understand. But I want the fluff to have context and character. Sorry for making you wait so long, but I hope this is like having a fine, aged wine in terms of romantic fics; there's more subtle notes and complexity there than if one of these two just managed to pluck themselves up enough to confess their love.
> 
> Not disparaging straight fluff fics, there are some great ones out there. It's just not how I think and write.


	35. Go! (Part 1)

Robin kept the T-ship pod low, navigating between buildings to keep Aionor and Malchior from noticing until it was too late.

“Signal's away. Beast Boy and Raven know to move as soon as we make the first attack run.” He said over the pod's comm. “Remember, Star, we don't need to do a lot of damage, we just need to buy them and Cyborg time.”

“Please, what is it that we are buying time for, Robin?”

“I...” He sighed, “I don't know, Star. Beast Boy said we'd know his signal when we saw it.”

Starfire, flying just over his left wing, goggled at him through his canopy. “You allowed Beast Boy to withhold part of his plan from you?”

“He needs his confidence back.” Robin said, surprising himself how much he believed in his decision to drop it when Beast Boy said he needed to keep his and Raven's part of the plan secret in case Aionor could read minds. “His reasoning was flawed, but now wasn't the time to point it out. He needs to know we believe in him... that I believe in him. I never gave it much thought before, but he gives my opinion a lot of weight.”

“Indeed. He has idolized you since we became a team.”

“That's always been strange to me.” said Robin, “He was with the Doom Patrol just as long as I was with Batman. If any two Titans are peers, it would be us. But we should talk about this later; the bay is coming up.”

“I am ready to do battle.” Starfire said, her tone becoming hard.

Robin gripped the controls and grit his teeth. With his thumb, he flicked the toggle that armed the sonic cannons. “We've been through a lot of things as a team, but I never expected to be firing on the Tower.” Despite his hesitance, he didn't need Starfire's assurances before pulling the trigger.

Blue pulses of sonic energy leapt from the cannons and tracked across the bay, impacting the tower at the base before moving steadily upward. Starfire joined in shortly thereafter. Concrete cracked and windows outright exploded as their onslaught struck the tower.

“Alright, Star.” Robin said. “Remember, act angry.”

Starfire's eyes glowed violently. “I do not need to act.” With that, she broke off from him to attack from the opposite side.

His jaw set, Robin reached up ans switched on the external speakers. “Malchior! Aionor!” He bellowed. “You're both going to pay for what you did to our friends!”

TT^TT^TT

“This... doesn't look like a super villain lair.” Control Freak said. He and Cyborg were standing outside a brownstone on Jump city's south side. It looked... cheerful, which bright yellow and red flowers growing in the window boxes and a few happy little lawn gnomes on the stoop. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

Cyborg raised any eyebrow at him. “You got no place calling someone else out about villain style. I've been in your house,remember. You've got a toaster cozy.”

“A Darth Vader toaster cozy.”

“You ain't helping your case. Now keep quiet and let me handle this.” He rang the doorbell.

“Just a minute.” came an aged, female voice. Before long, the door opened to reveal a woman in her early seventies with long, thin white hair. She was fit for her age, by still was forced to walk with a cane. After a long moment squinting at them, she reached for her glasses, which hung from a cord around her neck and put them on.

“Oh, praise Nol! You're Cyborg, the Titan, yes? The police said they were too busy keeping the panic from that dragon to a minimum, but I'm so worried... you see, my granddaughter is missing. Please, come in. Can I make you some tea?”

“Missing.” Cyborg said before he could stop himself. “Um... I mean no thank you. Is your granddaughter, by any chance, called Aionor?”

The old woman looked surprised at this. “Why... yes. That's her birth name. She goes by 'Amy' for most purposes. I... I suppose you know then.”

“Not as much as you might think, ma'am.”

Aionor's grandmother started to speak, but instead took a closer look at Control Freak. “Oh thank goodness. I was afraid Robin let himself go. Say... haven’t I seen you before?”

Control Freak tried to straighten his posture and failed. “Um... no ma'am. I'm and Honora...” He caught a glare from Cyborg. “I mean associ...” A harder glare. “I'm an intern.”

She seemed to accept this, turning back to Cyborg. “I suppose I should explain. My granddaughter has powers, much like you.”

“How come she never joined the Titans?” Control Freak blurted out.

“Oh...” the old lady frowned. “Well the truth is, our family are a line devoted to fighting evil. Each generation either prepares the next, or is destined to destroy a specific threat. Many centuries ago, our ancestor, Rorek of Nol, was destined to defeat that dragon, Malchior. The one that attacked last night. Rorek sealed him away.

“And like Rorek, Aionor was destined to defeat a great evil. One called, in prophecy, 'The End of All Things Mortal'.”

Cyborg furrowed the half of his brow that wasn't mechanical. “Where have I heard that before.”

Control Freak snapped his fingers. “It's that poet prophecy thing from 'The End'.”

“What now?”

“The... that time Raven's dad showed up and ended the world? It's the poem that said Raven would become the Portal.”

“I really wish you hadn't just made Raven's Trigon connection public knowledge.” Cyborg slapped his forehead.

Aionor's grandmother reached up and patted his shoulder. “You don't have the worry. I knew the prophecy. And I know what your friend Raven is... and what she could have been. You see, the prophecy didn't just say that she would become the Portal. My mother's mother discovered that it actually foretold that Raven would slay her father and then become 'The End of All Things Mortal.”

She lowered her head, looking at the floor. “The reason Aionor never joined you, not matter how much she wished to, was because her destiny was to destroy Raven if she became that.” Before Cyborg could react, she lifted her head and caught his eye. “But that didn't happen. She trusted in you, her friends instead and banished Trigon. She no longer has to be destroyed and just as important, Aio... Amy can live out her life as a normal girl.”

Cyborg and Control Freak glanced at one another. Well this was intensely awkward.

“But...” Cyborg quickly changed the subject. “Now she's missing.”

The old woman nodded. “I believe that she might have left to fight Malchior... or perhaps, the dread dragon became aware that we were here and took her as a means to end Rorek's line.”

Cyborg rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah... those are certainly possibilities. Do you mind if we check her room? There might be clues to where she went.”

“Of course.” she said, “Go right ahead, boys. Up the stairs and it's the second door on your right. Thank you so much.”

“It's, uh, what we do, ma'am. Come on, CF.” Cyborg quickly directed the portly villain up the stairs.

TT^TT^TT

Malchior turned his head to avoid more flying glass. “I don't trust this. This move is too rash, too emotional for the 'legendary' leader of the Titans.”

Aionor stood impassively at the counter in ops, eyes forward as she watched the occasional flash of orange or purple as Robin or Starfire came into view. “Or not. You don't know Robin like I do. He has a temper—a terrible one if you know which buttons to press. Maybe someone really did die in the collapse; that would put me in Slade's league in his mind, easily.”

“And you expect me to go out there and face them based on your instincts?”

“Only if you're well enough to stand against them.” She said, flippantly. “If not, I'm sure I can protect you.”

The dread dragon wheeled his massive neck around so he could glare at her with both baleful eyes. “You protect me? Preposterous. Injury or no, I'm more than a match for two run down Titans.” He flared his wings. “You stay here. I'll annihilate them and then we will have a serious talk about the nature of out partnership.”

Letting loose a deafening roar, he charged through the broken windows, hurling himself into the sky and into battle.

Only when he was gone did Aionor let herself relax and allow a small smile to crease her lips. “Almost done.”

The doors to ops opened. “Is he gone, Lady Aionor?”

The voice was oily and discomfiting, but it gave her a surge of confidence. Puppet King was like Gizmo, like Control Freak-- even like Malchior himself: villains crippled by their own tunnel vision. They had a niche and stuck to it, keeping themselves from becoming more. All she had to do was control what parts of her plan they saw and they followed her eagerly, even when they didn't realize it.

“Yes, Puppet King,” She straightened regally. “He's gone. Are you ready for the next step?”

“Oh yes, Lady. All is in readiness. You just have to say the word.” The disturbing marionette said.

“Excellent.” She strode over to him. “It won't be long now, I'll keep my promises to you and lift your curse. You'll never have to fear being turned into an ordinary puppet ever again.”

“Oh, thank you, Lady.” The puppet groveled as she passed him and went into the hall.

“Don't mention it. Now; let's put the last piece of the puzzle into place.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, we get the uncut version of what Aionor told Raven in the cavern here, which I thought was important. It's also foreshadowing if you know where to look.


	36. Go! (Part 2)

A pool of absolute darkness appeared on the gantry that connected to the T-ship's launch pad, directly behind a group of swarmers that were perched there to keep watch on the launch bay doors. Moments later, a gorilla exploded from that darkness to savage them with swinging fists and pure, savage fury.

Howling at the top of its lungs, the green ape made short work of those three and leapt to a lower level of the gantry to lay into the group stationed there as well. Seizing one by the central stalk, it used the monster as a bludgeon against it's comrades.

The sound of violence reached Gizmo in the adjacent basement hanger, where he was putting the finishing touches on the T-armor. When he looked up to see what was happening, he turned to the swarmers covering the walls.

“What are you bug-sniffers watin' for? Go get him!” The alien creatures regarded him a moment, their limited minds taking a moment to register the others. Almost as one, they complied, slithering from where they clung to the walls to rush en masse into the launch bay.

Gizmo couldn't help but to look on smugly. “Let's see ya take a thousand of these, ya green cludgehead.” He almost didn't hear tapping on the central keyboard that controlled the hanger and launch bay. Klaxons started sounding and heavy blast doors rolled out to seal off the launch bay behind the swarmers. Moments later, there was a grinding sound, followed by a roar as the bay doors above opened, allowing the Pacific to flood into the bay.

“What the--” He turned and the words died in his throat as he was black talons emerge from the ether. Before he could act, he was pulled off his feet and into darkness. A heartbeat later, he was forcibly ejected from the same, out cold and bound in handcuffs and leg irons. His tech pack, crushed beyond recognition, followed, clattering across the floor.

A pitch black, spectral raven emerged from the floor by the keyboard, withdrawing to reveal a blue cloaked Raven, who quickly keyed in commands that killed the klaxons and started the pumps to drain the launch bay.

After long minutes, the doors slid open. The T-ship and its gantry streamed salt water from their temporary submersion, and the bodies of drowned swarmers lingered just a bit longer before fading. The only living thing remaining was an unusually smug looking, green orca beached on the pier that serviced the T-sub.

Raven glared at it, but it was only a glare of minor annoyance. “You could have just been a sea lion, or a fish, you know?”

The orca deflated down to Beast Boy who grinned. “I could have, but that was more fun.” Something had changed in him in the past hour. It probably had to do with their conversation, though Raven didn't understand why what little had been said could possibly make him feel better. And surprisingly, she didn't care. He was acting a lot closer to his old self. Not all of the swagger and goofiness was back, but enough of it was to make her feel like things might be alright.

Alright, that is, right up until Malchior, Aionor, or Beast Boy being allowed to make up the plan got them killed.

She just stared impassively. “You destroyed a lot of swarmers, but that doesn't solve the real problem of Malchior.”

“I know.” Beast Boy shifted into a dog and shook himself dry before returning to human and walking into the hanger. “But I had to get rid of those guys so we could work on my plan. Did you get Gizmo?”

“What do you think?” Raven inclined her head in the direction of the unconscious gadgeteer.

Beast Boy's face fell. “Aw man, I was hoping you wouldn't knock him out.”

“Why? So we could hear his sparkling wit”

Beast Boy snorted. “Man, I've missed that.” Then he shuffled uncomfortably, his awkwardness wafting off him in Raven's empathic senses. Not so much like himself after all. “I mean... I was kind of hoping we could get information out of him.”

“What kind of information?” Raven asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Everything else aside, she was tried of being left out of the plan.

Still shuffling awkwardly, Beast Boy looked up at the T-armor. “Well, see... this is the part you're going to think is stupid...”

TT^TT^TT

“So... what are we looking for?” Control Freak asked,

He and Cyborg were standing in Aionor's room. It wasn't that far removed from an ordinary teenaged girl's room; a portrait of someone caught between girl and woman. There was make-up and there were cutesy toys. The comforter was white with yellow daffodils, and the curtains matched. But that the same time, there were hints of who Aionor really was—the books were all about psychology, especially the psychology of metahumans, and magic; she had a spare set of armor on a stand in one corner, and a silver sword hanging on the wall.

“I'll know when I see it.” Cyborg said. “All this took planning. So there's got to be like, notes or something—research. If we know how she prepared, we might be able to figure out the weaknesses of whatever she's go planned. I'll check her computer, you toss the room.”

“Um...” Control Freak looked around. He'd never been in a girl's room before and he was more than a little intimidated. “When you say toss...”

“Search, ransack—man, you know what 'toss' means, now get to it.” Cyborg sat down at Aionor's computer and switched it on.

Control Freak chewed his lip. “But what about you know, her unmentionables?”

“Unmentiona... Oh. Well don't do nothing weird with 'em.”

“I wasn't!”

“Uh-huh.”

“I really wasn't!” Control Freak pouted, wandering around the room, but refusing to touch anything. “Hey, wonder why she didn't used the sword?”

Cyborg wasn't listening, so he continued on until something caught his eye. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh? What, uh-oh?” Cyborg looked up.

“You guys said she switched places with Raven? I think I know how.” Control Freak picked up a puppet likeness of Raven from the shelf.

“We already knew that.” Cyborg pointed out. “Keep looking.”

“That's... not why I said 'uh-oh.' There's scraps over here, from where she made the puppet. And it looks like she made more than one.”

TT^TT^TT

Robin clenched his teeth. The T-ship/sub components were designed to move either in the vacuum of space or in the support of the ocean. And while the T-ship itself was more than capable of transporting the team in the air, his individual pod was shaking itself to pieces trying to do basic maneuvers.

He was jostled hard as he banked left to avoid a plume of flame and it got worse when he cut back right and rise to pour energy blasts into Malchior's belly. Green flashes reflecting off the great dragon's scales told him Starfire was hitting him just as hard from above.

But it wasn't making much of a difference. Malchior was ancient and steeped in magic. They could only hope to bruise him without extraordinary effort.

“This is just for a distraction. I don't have to hurt him.” He recited those words over and over, but they didn't keep the indignity from chafing at him. He was the leader. He should be taking point and dishing out the punishment. Being just the distraction was an insult to his capabilities. How did Beast Boy put up with taking that role so often?

It was a good plan though, if not one Robin would have ever come up with. They had to stick to it and have faith, no matter how much he wanted to break radio silence and demand where the hell Beast Boy and Raven were. All he knew was that they had better not be having their overdue heart to heart-- there was a time and place for those kinds of things.

'Like when you're trapped in a cave with an unstoppable monster trying to eat you' said a voice in his head that sounded annoyingly similar to Bruce. As if he was one to talk on either subject.

But he was his own man now and it was his choice to let Beast Boy have this one. For the good of the team, he would hold the line.

He climbed and banked, helped along by the updraft going up under Malchior's wing and unloaded sonic pulses at the back of the dragon's horned head. Too bad only Cyborg's pod was equipped with missiles.

“Robin!” Starfire called over the comm. It took a moment to find her, hovering over the dragon's tail. She was pointing down to the sea.

Clearing Malchior's bulk, Robin followed he gaze and saw it too.

The ocean was boiling as tons of water fought to fill the relatively small space of the Titans' hanger. From the center of the stir rose the gleaming silvery spars of the launch gantry. Normally, the yellow-orange of the T-ship would grace that structure, bu today, it was replaced by a vision of heroic might in green and blue and white.

Latched firmly onto the gantry was Beast Boy in dragon form. And he was armored in the modified T-car; the hood assembly had been hammered into a champron that protected his head like an armored faceplate, the passenger cabin mounted to his back with the formerly hidden sonic cannons exposed and ready to fire, the missile racks mounted to his wing joints and behind the cabin.

With seawater streaming off him in a jeweled cascade, he climbed to the very top and let out a mighty roar of challenge at Malchior.

When the great, black dragon whirled to see him, it was almost possible to see Beast Boy's trademark cocky smirk under the helm. “Dude, didn't you say I was just comic relief? Guess the joke's on you.”


	37. Go! (Part 3)

Malchior instantly broke off his pursuit of Robin and Starfire to zero in on what was quickly becoming the focus of his greatest annoyance and derision. “Still alive are you? That's quite unfortunate. I imagine that your companions secretly feel the same way.”

As little as a day ago, that barb might have hurt Beast Boy. Not being wanted was terrifying to him and even a tiny doubt like that might have made his stomach turn. But today was a new day and he'd spent most of it finding out a lot about how the others really saw him and how much they really did care.

“Nice try, dude, but you're gonna have to try a lot harder to make me feel bad. I'm having a really good day.” Beast Boy lowered his head, clearing the forward cannons on the former T-car. “Now, Rae!”

Inside the cramped and dimly lit passenger cabin, Raven was still less than happy with the plan, especially the part where she'd largely been left out of it right up until they were in the middle of executing it. “'Now' what?” She droned.

“Push the button.” Beast Boy said, confident as he watched Malchior roaring toward him. His bravado slipped when screaming blue death didn't lance out from his back to deal with the evil dragon. “Um... push the button please?”

Raven looked around. Gizmo had been in the middle of rewiring everything so Malchior could control it while wearing it when they hijacked the rig. Control panels lay open, spilling wires everywhere until it looked like a bondage convention for octopuses. “What button?”

Beast Boy felt sweat on his brow—did dragons sweat, or was he imagining himself sweat-dropping like in anime? It didn't seem to matter at the moment. “Any button Rae. Cannon, lasers, even the oil slicks would be good about now!”

“I don't know what any of these do and half of them aren't even really buttons anymore.” She snapped, starting to get frustrated.

“But you helped Cy build the T-car. You should know it in and out!” Malchior was very close now.

“In case you haven't noticed, there've been some changes since it was a car.” She grabbed panels and examined them as quickly as possible. Most were unlabeled because Cyborg didn't see the value in it when he was the only one allowed to drive 'his baby'. Is she survived this, she would have words with him about that.

Beast Boy started to retort, but Malchior was almost upon them. “too late!” He leapt off the gantry just as Malchior arrived, the dragon's claws sheering off the top few feet of the metal structure instead of Beast Boy's throat.

Malchior wheeled and Beast Boy matched him, using a current off the ocean to speed his ascent like he'd done so many times before as a seagull. They passed each other in air, Beast Boy upside down as he barely cleared the ridge of Malchior's back.

Stuck in the cabin, Raven was treated to a view of black scales flashing by overhead, plus a flicker of yellow that made her blink. Robin's sword was still stuck in the great beast's hide. It made her rethink their odds. Just as he'd hit them while they were worn down, now they were hitting him before he was fully healed. It could work.

With a few powerful wing beats, Beast Boy opened pace between him and Malchior before winging over to face Malchior once more. “He's coming back.”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Raven groused, “None of the buttons are labeled.”

“Then do what I do: just press everything.”

“You would do that, wouldn't you?”

“Of course, it's more fun that way. Besides, we're doing things my way this time, remember? Aionor would never expect you to press all the buttons.” Beast Boy grinned as much as his draconic beak-mouth could manage.

Raven rolled her eyes and grabbed a panel at random. “I think you're taking this concept further than logic allows. But what do we have to lose?” She pushed a likely button. The heads' up display came up on the windshield, including a targeting reticule that let out a long tone.

“I don't believe it.” She said in monotone. “I actually got a missile lock.”

Another tone started. Then another, and another.

“What? Thirty missile locks? What did I push?”

It was too late to stop it. The two missile racks on Beast Boy's wings opened and suddenly disgorged their entire arsenal. Lines of white exhausted crisscrossed behind more than two dozen missiles as they each tracked in on Malchior.

“That was TOTALLY the best button to push!” Beast Boy laughed.

Malchior back-winged in the face of the fusillade, turning and corkscrewing to evade as missiles burst all around. The odds were against him, however, and one hit his left wing joint directly, throwing him into a violent spin with more missiles still inbound, striking him again and again.

Raven wasn't done yet. She knew that the light missiles the T-car packed wouldn't be enough to keep the dragon down. “But if this is the weapons panel...” She pressed another button. Oil sprayed out from under the armor, coating Beast Boy's flanks.

“Yeah... that was the oil slick.” groaned Beat Boy.

“Sorry.” She said simply, and tried another button. This time both the sonic cannons spoke, sending win lanced of blue energy out to pound Malchior out of the sky to crash on the rocky shore of Titans' Island. His impact was accented by a volley of starbolts as Star rejoined the battle.

If it could have, Beast Boy's grin would have grown. “Hey Rae, do you see where he just landed?”

She did. “Just get me close enough to use my powers.”

Laughing like a maniac, Beast Boy dove toward the back side of the island where Malchior had landed.

TT^TT^TT

The scene unfolded before Aionor's disbelieving eyes across the big screen and the six smaller ones surrounding it.

Deep in the central structure of the tower, far from Malchior's reach while in his true form, Cyborg's room had become home base; her inner sanctum. All of the tower's systems were accessible from there, and the mechanical Titan's slab, once put in a fully horizontal position, formed a perfect work surface. By and by, it was strewn with the debris of her practice spellcraft and the Puppet King's own efforts.

Efforts which, thanks to the recent turn of events, would need to be re-purposed.

“So Beast Boy and Raven survived. I hate to think that little bit of brilliance only killed Cyborg, but I suspect even he managed to survive.” She tried to sound like she didn't care, like she was still in control. But was she? Her best case scenario for this point was that she killed all of them, or left a broken and half-mad Raven to grieve. Worst case, she expected to kill at least one, leading to a suicidal charge against Malchior.

Except things had changed. Beast Boy was using the armor she'd ordered Gizmo to build to make Malchior look even more insurmountable at the moment of truth, and the Titans weren't coming at the tower blindly howling for revenge; they had a plan and it was something she hadn't foreseen.

Suddenly she knew how Robin felt when Slade played him time and time again.

Puppet King picked the exact wrong time to open his sycophantic mouth. “But mistress; surely Malchior can defeat the Titans. He nearly did before. You've told me this.”

It took all of Aionor's self control not to send a bolt of electricity into the animated toy.

“The Titans can't beat Malchior, but Malchior can't beat the Titans.” she explained in a huff. “He's too arrogant, too gloating. He'd always let them live to run away and fight another day because he gets an ego boost from beating them. That's why I needed to destroy or weaken them myself before letting him fight them. And I need them dead before I can finish this.”

Silence. A chance to think this through. Only Puppet King opened his wooden yap again.

“Then... what shall we do?”

Aionor's teeth ground. Fine. She'd show him and the Titans that she was a force to be reckoned with; a better sorceress than Raven, a better strategist than Robin.

“The only reason Malchior can't kill them is because of his personality. There's nothing wrong with his powers and body. Only the will.” She turned from the screens and walked over to the slab. Amid other odds and ends, she found what she was looking for; the puppets she'd used to switch bodies with Raven.

Tossing little Raven aside, she gingerly picked up the control stick for little Aionor and made her stand up. “Waste not, want not, I guess. Puppet King, break out that other one.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Puppet King quickly produced a shoebox sized container from under the slab and opened it so she could see inside. An adorable black and purple dragon with a goofy sewn on smile stared up at her with googly eyes.

“Excellent. Before, I was just going to use this to make him easy to kill; making it so I saved the city from a threat that killed their beloved Titans. Looks like first I'll have to use it to do the killing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't part of the original plan, but around the time I was writing the mountain segments, I realized that I had already had BB vs Malchior and Raven vs. Aionor and that the finale somehow had to out-epic those. Hence Raven and Beast Boy 'combined' by way of the armor vs Aionor with Malchior's powers and durability. Thematic! Literary! Capitalization!
> 
> We're drawing near to the end, folks. The final battle, the fluffy aftermath, and roll credits. But don't despair, sequels are coming! At the end of this fic, I'll have a stinger for TT: Menace in Mexico.


	38. Penultimate

Malchior flexed, his monstrous anatomy forcing his dislocated wing, shoulder and jaw back into place and staunching the flow of blood from a handful of wounds where the scales had been blown clean off by numerous missile strikes. It went to show just how much returning to the physical realm and fighting the Titans the night before had ground his abilities down that they had done even that much damage.

Still, if that was their best shot, then they could never win. Starbolts were falling on him like rain now, and doing about the same amount of damage. The same could be said for the sonic blasts from Robin's pod. A shadow passed over him, and he prepared for an attack from Beast Boy.

Except the green, armored dragon passed right over him in favor of preforming a flyover of a carved rock outcropping in back of the tower.

Rising from the dust, he resolved to teach that little wretch to never turn his back on him.

Dark energy overshadowed some sort of metal encasement atop that outcropping. What could—

A metallic fist burst from the ground and pounded Malchior in the chest, bowling him over on his back. Then another came up and struck his wing, flipping him over. This time, he leapt away in time to miss a third and then a fourth.

As he backed away, more rumbling came from the ground and three structures that looked like gigantic guillotines except with rock slab in place of blades sprung up in his path and started dropping their slabs on his back.

Roaring his surprise and angry, Malchior threw off the weights and hurled himself away from the obstacles. At which point, turrets emerged from the ground and opened fire with lasers and clay pigeons.

From her vantage point on Beast Boy's back, Raven allowed herself a small smile as she watched her old tormentor go crazy smashing turrets. “Okay. I have to admit that this is part of the plan that I like.”

Beast Boy puffed out his chest with pride. “See? Sometimes I do have good ideas. Like stankball and the tofu crust pizza.”

“Don't ruin your moment of triumph.” Raven admonished.

“Are you kidding? I'm just about to put the cherry on top of my sundae of awesome!” Beast Boy gathered himself up to charge the highly distracted Malchior.

But then something strange happened. A flare of white light issued from the tower, curving as it homed in on Malchior. The dragon seemed to sense it and turned, eyes going wide with shock and then narrowing in rage. “You! How dare you!”

It was too late. A black flare erupted from his own forehead and streaked up to pass the white one on its way to the tower. Malchior's eyes briefly flashed green before steeling into a staticy white.

“Oh no...” Raven murmured.

“What? What just happened?” Beast Boy asked.

“Oh, yes.” said 'Malchior' with Aionor's voice. Ignoring the turrets still stinging her, she threw herself into the air with a single beat of her wings. “No more playing around, Rae-Rae. This time, it's the end for you and your little green pet.”

“Dude! Not cool. You already did the body surfing thing.” Beast Boy complained.

Raven overshadowed one of the metal fist and directed it at Aionor's face, something she very much wanted to do with her own fist at this point. “He is not a pet!” Her voice was the voice of legion and her eyes tinged red as she swung the massive weapon.

Aionor rolled in the air, curling around the attack before answering with fire. Beast Boy dodged himself, but he wasn't the target: the fire melted the control panel for the Titans' obstacle course to slag. No sooner had she let loose that gout of flame than she surged forward to tackle Beast Boy while he was correcting from his dodge.

Roaring and snapping at each other, the two dragons tumbled through the air until Beast Boy's wing clipped the tower. The remaining missiles in the rack attached to that wing exploded, sending Beast Boy to the ground wreathed in smoke and flames.

Drinking in the agonized sounds he was making, Aionor landed a short distance away and began to chant a spell. A sphere of unnaturally red fire formed before her and at her command, lurched erratically toward him.

Beast Boy was in no condition to dodge, and could only watch in horror as the fireball swept over his shoulder and exploded on impact with the passenger cabin on his back. Missile, gas and oil were all touched off by the blast and detonated shortly thereafter.

The flaming wreck of the armor hit the ground with a sickening groan of metal and plastic. A green field mouse darted from the conflagration before becoming Beast Boy in his default form. Ignoring the heat and flames, he ran back to the passenger cabin. “Rae!”

Aionor forgotten, her jumped from one relatively flame free spot to the other until her got to a door. In gorilla form, he ripped it off before returning to human. “Where are you? Please be okay. You've gotta be okay!”

A shadowy form emerged from the ground and ensconced him before he could get himself hurt searching in the middle of the flames. The moment it drew him in, it sank into the ground once more, finally emerging a safe distance from the fire and leaving Beast Boy leaning on Raven's shoulder, coughing up the smoke and fumes he'd inhaled during his ill fated rescue attempt.

“I will never complain about coldness or the feeling of things crawling on me when you do that ever again.” He said weakly.

“There's not supposed to be a sensation of crawling. I should probably look into that.” said Raven. Beast Boy paled.

Aionor rumbled deep in her cavernous chest. “You just don't know when to die, do you?”

“And you don't know when to keep tabs on your surroundings.” Robin's voice boomed over external speakers built into his pod. There was a hiss of an ejector seat being launched just before the pod came down n a steep dive, colliding with Aionor's back and exploding.

Furious, She span to breath fire on the parachuting boy detective, only to get a face full of starbolts. Lowering her head, she took it and endured as only a dragon could. “You think this makes any difference?!” She screamed. “You can't hurt me. Malchior took your best shots and you still couldn't put him down. And I'm a much better tactician than he ever was. If I wanted, I could just let you grind yourselves down to nothing!”

Beast Boy grimaced. “This looks bad, Raven. I think I'm gonna have to rest a while before I can do the dragon thing again.” He was still greener than usual thanks to the fumes he'd breathed in.

Raven focused on Aionor, but nodded. “You've done enough. More than enough.” She looked at him sideways. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He said shyly.

Though he brightened at the praise, her empathy told her of the sharp pang attached to the memory of what happened with Aionor. There would be a lot of discussion once this was done and not all of it something she was dreading anymore. She gave him a quick squeeze with the arm holding him up and one of those small smiles he used to work so hard to see. It surprised her just how much it didn't surprise her that those little things completely obliterated that pain.

“Can you stand?” She couldn't look him in the eye, so she looked at the clouds. They were thin and high, but they would have to do. Her gaze tracked back down to Aionor and the faint glint of metal on her back.

“Yeah, I'm good.” He said quietly.

She let go of him, testing first to make sure he was telling the truth. “Then I'll finish this now.”

Flying straight up, she gathered power in her hands. Once before she'd tried this against Malchior, but his thick hide protected him. Now however...

“Aionor!” She shouted. Her raspy voice carried through the power of her magic. The dragon turned back to her from chasing Starfire. “It's me you wanted, right? All of this, just because I didn't turn evil and let you kill me like you wanted?”

“The long and short of it.” Aionor snarled. “You have no idea what I went through!”

Raven's eyes flared white. “And you have no idea what I went through! And I still managed to stay good. Still managed to do more than let my life revolve around my destiny. It isn't my fault you let yourself get corrupted, that you never just came to us if you wanted to be a hero. None of this was necessary.”

“You still don't get it, do you?”

Face reverted to her usual lack of emotion, Raven closed her eyes, projecting her soul-self into the clouds. “No. And I'm done trying to care.” The clouds moved, particles against particles, stripping electrons. It was fine work, and complex on top of it, but Raven soldiered through and from those clouds, coaxed lightning.

A blinding white bolt fell from on high, following a path forged by Raven's soul-self—directly into Robin's sword, still embedded in Aionor's back. The sounds that came from Aionor as the electricity coursed through her made even Raven's demonic side cringe. Whatever it did, it have far more of an effect this time than it did when Malchior first attacked.

But it wasn't enough. Spasming from the shock, Aionor clawed to her feet. “You aren't learning. I'm unstoppable. Do whatever you want to me, but I'll keep coming again and again until you've suffered every bit as much as I did. Maybe my plan to set myself up as a hero failed, but I swear that everything I do is going to be geared to ruining your life.”

“That's where you're wrong.” Raven's voice was strong and, for her at least, bold. “Remember that 'surprise' you said you left me? I think maybe for all you wanted to destroy my life, you ended up doing the opposite.”

Aionor recoiled in confusion. “WHAT?!”

“I'm sure that must be crushing to hear.” Raven reached behind her for the biggest, heaviest thing she could find and hurled it. There was a crash, a rumble and then an entire room was torn out of the tower and brought down with incredible force down on top of her nemesis.

The thunderous noise of it landing seemed to bring silence behind. Cautiously, the four Titans present cautiously approached the pile of rubble; Raven and Starfire from the air and Robin and Beast Boy from the ground.

Something shifted, throwing off a dresser. Everyone prepared to throw everything they had at it, only to find Silkie forcing himself to the surface. The mutant larva gurgled his discontent at his nap being interrupted and squirmed down the side of the pile, directly into the waiting arms of Starfire.

“Oh, my little bumgorf! You truly did give us the fright!” The alien princess gave her pet a tight hug, which caused it to gag and spit up a green cymbal banging monkey toy.

“Wait a minute...” Beast Boy took a closer look at the rubble. There were some pieces of his bunk bed, and elsewhere, a telltale deposit of funky laundry, and stuck to a broken piece of rebar fluttered his old Doom Patrol mask. “This was my room! You threw my room at her?!”

Raven shrugged and pulled up her hood. “Oops?”

TT^TT^TT  
Back in Cybrog's room, the mirror flashed and turned back. “Puppet King!” Aionor's voice boomed out. “Bring me back! You have to bring me back right now!”

“Of course Mistress.” the diminutive villains said. He wondered where she was that the mirror communication spell wouldn't show her face, but that wasn't really any of his business. He turned to grab his controller and the puppets from the slab, only to be blinded by a flash of light.

“You!” He said, incredulous. In front of him stood Control Freak.

The redheaded geek blew on the business end of his remote like it was a six shooter and holstered it at his side. “Nope. Us.”

From behind him stepped Cyborg, holding the controller. The index finger of his right hand fliped open to reveal a blowtorch, which he held under the device. “There's been a change of plan, ya creepy little Jigsaw rip-off. So do what we say, or you're going in the Toys For Tots box instead of prison.”


	39. Consequences and the Resolution

Beast Boy pouted for a long moment, looking at the ruin of his room. But as was custom for him, he wasn't able to dwell on it that long before seeing the bright side of things. Rubbing the back of his head, he turned to Raven. The empath was staring wide eyed at the rubble too, her expression revealing that her 'oops' wasn't just a cynical rejoinder but genuine dismay. He would never understand how she got off calling herself emotionless when her eyes expressed so much.

And then she caught him staring at her eyes and nervous laughter and a lame joke came to his rescue. “Um... I guess there's really no way this made it more messy than it already was.”

She didn't laugh. He knew she wouldn't. But neither did she break eye contact. “I really am sorry about that.”

“Yeah... but hey, whatever it took to win right. Aionor's out cold and it's finally all over.”

Now she looked away, flicking her gaze off to the side toward nothing in particular. “Not everything...”

Beast Boy looked away too, choosing the rocky ground to stare at. “Oh. Right. About that...”

“Friends! We are victorious!” Starfire touched down not far away. A green gloved hand grabbed her shoulder, firmly but gently, halting her intentions to grab up her friends in one of her trademark bone-crushing hugs. Robin.

“Hold on, Star.” He said in hushed tones. “I think they need a little time alone right now, okay?”

Starfire looked at him blankly for a moment. Not because she didn't understand, but because she never expected Robin of all people to appreciate the need. Finally, she nodded. “Of course. Thank you. I nearly let my enthusiasm escape from me. I would have been most disappointed to ruin their moment.”

Back over by Beast Boy, Raven worried her lip. Talking for her was hard enough, though not as hard as it had been before joining the Titans. But talking about her feelings—Those feelings—was something she dreaded. Hadn't she joust pours her soul out the night before, confronting him about his avoiding her? Why did she have to do it again now?”

“About what I said...” She began tentatively. His eyes drooped and her heart broke. He thought she was going to reject him, even after all this. Now she absolutely had to say something of substance. “About how maybe there really has been something between us? I think—I know there is. And I think I'm ready for it now.”

Beast Boy goggled. He'd expected 'maybe' and 'I think' to be as far as things would go and was prepared to at least act like he was content with that. He had to blink a few times to ensure he wasn't dreaming. “Really? So you...” There really was no intelligent way to put it and admittedly, if there was, he wasn't the one to know it at any rate, “..wanna be my girlfriend?”

True to form, she danced around it, but she wouldn't have been Raven if she didn't. “I'm warning you though: it's not going to be easy. I'm not exactly like other girls.”

“Yeah, but that's that part of what I like about you.” Beast Boy surprised himself by saying that. Even more than he surprised Raven. To cover, he cleared his throat. “Besides... I'm not exactly like other guys.”

And that was part of what she liked about him. “Other guys wouldn't have put so much effort into including me with the group, or tried so hard to try and make me smile, or put up with my powers slamming them into walls.” She pointed out. “But you know what I mean. Thinks aren't going to be like...”

She almost said 'like there were with Terra', but stopped herself. No need to foul the mood. “Like how they would be with someone normal. I mean holding hands is going to be as big a step for me as kissing would be fore anyone else. I'm not used to this and I'm going to need time.”

Beast Boy smiled a gentle smile, made slightly comical by his fang. “Rae, I get it. I totally do. I know that there are Things Raven Does Not Do and I can totally deal, okay? Like we both said, there's been this thing between us for a while, so all that really has to change right now is that we're, ya know, official, right?”

It was sweet and brave of him to say, but she felt the tinge of disappointment from him. He might say it, and he would definitely do his best to 'deal', but she could feel that he wished for more tangible proof that they really were a couple now. On top of that, when she'd talked about what he did for her, there was still pain; what she'd said was too close to what Aionor-as-her had said at the start of the whole mess.

Mustering up her courage and focusing on the parts of her emotional spectrum that wanted to do this for longer than she at first realized, she reached down and took his gloved hand in her slender one.

Beast Boy stared at the joined hands as if someone had just given him a gold plated Gamestation controller. “But you said...”

Raven blushed and cursed the fact that her hood was down and unable to hide it. “Just because it's a big step doesn't mean its not going to happen.”

Of course, that wasn't the 'big step' that he Happiness and Affection were churning in the back of her brain for. She had to take it, or she might drive herself insane. “Beast Boy?”

Still looking at their hands and marveling at how good it felt, he replied absentmindedly. “Yeah?”

“I don't want you lingering on what she said that night.” They both know that 'she' was Aionor, her name didn't need to come up. “But I don't want you to think it was any less true that I'm glad to have always had to here for me. So...”

Before she could think it through and sensibly stop herself, she leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He was warm and fuzzy, but as she'd never kissed anyone before, none of it felt unusual. “Thanks. For being here for me, Gar.”

There was a brief surge of black energy, but it only smoothed out the sand in a five foot circle around them.

Beast Boy's face turned brown from the blush beneath his pelt. “I... um.. I mean always, Rae. You know that.”

The distance between animal instinct and a uniquely human lack of common sense was always a short walk for Beast Boy. So it was almost predictable that with his emotions thusly charged and his sense of the dramatic (honed over years of pop cultural osmosis) piqued, his next move was a badly thought out one.

As Raven pulled back, he leaned forward and kissed her fully on the lip. For a moment, it was perfectly magical feeling her soft lips on his. And in the next, actual magic flared up, stoked by her shock and a number of other emotions.

He found himself bouncing and tumbling through the dirt, finally sliding to a stop before the front doors of the tower, staring up at a familiar face. “Ugh. I think that's one of those things we're gonna have to take slow.”

“Just had ta push it, didn't ya grass stain?” smirked Cyborg.

Raven quickly glided over to him, looking worried. “I didn't actually mean to do that.”

“Bet it was still satisfying.” said Cyborg. Raven didn't disagree.

“Cyborg!” Beast Boy let Raven help him up and made it a point to put his arm around her. She squirmed uncomfortably at first, but made no effort to throw the arm off. “How did you get here with no T-car and none of us helping.”

“Man, don't remind me what that stringy haired little monster did to my baby.” Cyborg grimaced as if in pain while stepping to the side to reveal Control Freak. “But anyway, Freak clicked us over here with his remote.

Control freak grinned proudly. “And just in time too, because not only did we stop Aionor from getting away, but we picked up some neat souvenirs.” From out of his coat, he produced three puppets; one was the Puppet King, who hung sullen and resigned to his fate. The other two, likenesses of Aionor and Malchior, were slapping at each other with their little puppet limbs.

“Look what you've done, you horribly child!” Malchior was shrilling.

“None of this wouldn't have happened if you weren't so full of yourself “ Aionor retorted.

“Any you still would have betrayed me if I did!” Malchior replied before Control Freak stuffed them back in his pocket.

Robin strolled over with Starfire, looking most pleased with his team. “That just about wraps it up then. I guess I owe you an apology, Control Freak: you actually ended up helping us after all.”

“So I still get that Robin costume?” Asked the eager dork.

Robin made a face, but managed to shake it off. “Better. As long as you promise to use that remote of yours for good from now on, I think you've earned Honorary Titan status.

Actual tears appeared in Control Freak's eyes. “I... I'm just so happy right now!” With that, he leapt at Robin to wrap him in a hug.

Mortified, Robin looked to the others for help, only Starfire was beside herself with happiness too and the others were trying to stifle laughter.

After that had lost its novelty, Cyborg looked up at the tower, which now had almost all its windows busted out, chunks torn out of it, and one entire room ripped out of one of the arms. “Repairs to the tower are gonna take weeks. It might not even be livable for a while.”

Beast Boy smiled mischievously. “Ya know... it has been a while since we've had a vacation.” Out of nowhere (or possibly from the debris of his room now littering the island), he produced a pair of Mountie hats and put on on his head and one on Raven's. “I say we go to Canada! I always wanted to see the Taj Mahal.”

Having extricated himself from a blubbering Control Freak, Robin bent down and picked up a sombrero. “Actually... after Tokyo, didn't you say something about Mexico?”

End What Grows In Deception. 

TT^TT^TT  
Teaser – Teen Titans: Menace in Mexico City

The flutter of huge insectile wings filled a back lot in El Paso, Texas. The source was a human shaped being dressed in a blue and black, skin tight body suit, which sported not only massive insect wings, but horned shoulders—he was known as the Blue Beetle, the third to bare that name in fact.

“Don't tell me I'm wrong bugsuit,” He was saying. “I know I saw Brenda go this way. And if she's in a bad part of town like this, she's got to be in trouble.”

A second voice came form the suit itself, designated Khaji-da. It was in an impossible language, both organic and technological in sound.

“Look, I know you've got advanced sensors and junk, but I know Brenda when I see her..”

“Actually, Jaime, it looks like you don't.”

Beetle whirled around to find Brenda Del Vecchio. She looked as she always did; same short, red hair, same spray of freckles across her nose... but not the same 'floating six feet above the ground'. “Brenda? What..”

Khaji-Da spoke again. Something about it's neural dampers being overloaded. Jamie didn't know what those were.

“Sorry. I'm not really Brenda.” said Brenda in a different voice entirely. She sounded actually apologetic. “I just had to look like her to get you alone.”

Then she started to change. Her hair became a brighter red and longer, her face rounder, her limbs longer. Even her clothes melted and flowed going from jeans and a pink shirt to a red, white and blue sailor suit straight out of a schoolgirl anime. Strangest of all, she turned green.

“Gah!” Beetle blurted out, knowing that didn't sound heroic at all. “Shapeshifter! Scarab, I need... what do you mean we should do what she says? Scarab what's...” And then, suddenly, he found that he agreed. They should do absolutely everything Miss Martian said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can tell by the teaser, there is a sequel in mind for this, involving TT animated versions of Miss Martian, Blue Beetle and Cassandra Cain. Keep an eye out for that, plus the spin off about Control Freak; Freak Out, Geek Out.
> 
> And finally, if you enjoy my writing, I highly recommend you check out my original web serial The Descendants, which you can find on my profile. It's a superhero series with lots of young heroes. Titans fans will especially appreciate the offshoot series Liedecker Institute and Descendants LA.


End file.
